Let's Have A Little Treat

 

Have a little faith in me...

The Universe is singing that to all of us. I know it's telling me that about some things. Lately, I've been studying the history and usage of prayer for my Doctorate dissertation. This has inspired today's talk title:  Let's Have A Treat.

Some of you may have taken my workshop of the same name and will recognize what I am talking about. However, if your declarations haven't demonstrated like you thought...or better, take this as a needed review...I am.

By "treat," I mean both the idea of a goody and this definition of Spiritual Mind Treatment from Ernest Holmes:

The art and act, time and process, and method and science of consciously changing and inducing thought within our subconscious belief system for the purpose of demonstrating a new idea into our experience. 

You might have heard me or others make a call to “treat.”  Spiritual mind treatment is what that is calling; to pray by realigning our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs to the ideas we express in our Statements of Principles:

Reveal the Divinity in You
Vibrate at the Speed of the Divine
Bust Through, Soar, and Zoom into the greatest expression of your life

...which is the fulfillment of love, health, creativity, and prosperity in all the spaces, all the times, all the nooks and crannies of your life. Dr. Holmes continues in his definition of treatment:

We are surrounded by a Creative Medium which responds to us through a law of correspondence. Treatment is clearing the thought of negation, of doubt and fear, and causing it to perceive the ever-presence of God.

What we perceive, we become aware of. What we are aware of, we can awaken to. And as we awaken, we can embody this perception in all we think, feel, and do. 

Our minds are full of clutter:

• the clutter of memories, good and not so good
• the clutter of opinions and judgments, wise and not so wise
• the clutter and noise of lies, and decisions, both traumatic and disturbing, and the biases we have accepted which are usually not so good

All of these clutters and biases get in the way! 

• They get in the way of the new, shiny trinket you're eyeing. 
• They get in the way of re-igniting your relationship or having any love in your life. 
• They get in the way of a bigger audience. 
• They get in the way of (fill in the blank).

But these clutters and biases are not signs of a lost battle. They are not powered by evil. And they are not the result of being left alone to our own devices by the Universe with no potential or no tools or the any influence to change. On the contrary:

You have been left alone to discover your real nature, that as an individual you may consciously unite with the Law of Life and the Presence of Good…Just keep right on knocking at the doorway of your consciousness until every ‘no’ becomes a ‘yes’, every negation an affirmation, every fear a faith. You cannot fail if you remain steadfast. Finally, the fetters of bondage will drop from you. You will walk out of your self-imposed prison only to discover that the door was never really locked and the windows were not actually barred. You were bound merely by chains of unbelief.  ~This Thing Called You

So how do we get out of those chains of unbelief? Patricia Diane Cota-Robles wrote in, “Raising Consciousness: The Shift from Separation to Oneness”:

Trying to change physical conditions without changing my consciousness is like trying to change the reflection in a mirror without changing the object causing the reflection.

We change our consciousness...we change the reflection we are giving. We treat...the...mind and thus the subconscious, and thus the belief system. Having a treat has specific purposes. Treatment unclogs and frees your mind. It's the roto-rooter^[1] of mental clarity and spiritual maturity:

• Instead of removing tree roots and other debris the roto-rooter technician does, it eliminates the b.s. out of your Belief system
• Instead of cleaning your drain, it cleans your brain
• Instead of snaking your pipes and other plumbing gripes, it snakes through your mental aches and pains to leave you wide awake

It is said that people are attracted to this teaching and form of prayer with the hope of manifesting conditions and stuff in our material lives. Well, lose the hope - it has little to nothing to do with it. Affirmative prayer or spiritual mind treatment is actually for the purpose of freeing us from our own limited ideas and beliefs...not to just get stuff. Treatment provides a pause to remember who we are and commune with our own consciousness.

Let there be an opening into the quiet that lies beneath the chaos, where you find the peace you did not think possible and see what shimmers within the storm.  ~John O’Donahue, Rebel Thriver, “To Bless the Space Between Us”

So first, recognize that God is the All of all! 

You don't have to call It God - call it IT - God doesn't care what you call it! Just recognize the energy and frequency of all creation is here, right now - the Bahagavan, the qi, the life force.

Then unify yourself with that Power (whatever you're going to call it). 

You and that Power are One already, you might as well give in to that truth. It acts through you, as you, in you, and in all life - so, revel in it...it's not going away.

Thirdly, accept and affirm that what you are declaring and revealing in this treatment is happening right now. 

Confirm it with clarity and specificity. Since you've already established and known that you are part of that Big Universal Power thing, you can speak your word without doubt or reservation that the good you desire to experience is now taking form. When you decide to have a treat, your awareness shifts; you become aware of what is actually true and use this process to substitute what was happening in your mind to what you believe now. We focus on the feelings and senses of having this idea or thing in our life. Prayer frees us from the wrong thinking/ideas of the past. Remember, the Universe has your back so you know your desire is complete as you speak it.

Next, have appreciation and gratitude for this acceptance.

Having clearly stated and affirmed what you want to experience, it's time to do what you always do when you have accepted a treat - give thanks. The good you desire is yours right now. So, accept it and give thanks for this good right here and now. 

Finally, release the words, the thoughts, the feelings, the acceptance, and affirm your good as already accomplished.

When you release your prayer to the activity of the Universal Law of Mind, you can completely free yourself of any concern. “I let go and let God. I release this truth in total belief that it is done.”

When we use this incredible tool to treat our minds, freeing us and being led into the freedom that is our birthright, we can break the “chains of unbelief, disbelief, and disapproving logic. Disapproving logic is that monkey mind that says some version of “no” or “impossible.” It most probably will rear its doubting-Thomas- head when a new idea shows up - you just gotta tell it to "shut up." And keep saying so till you mean it and this doubting-Thomas thing lets up.

Get tough, get clear, get connected, and get manifesting!

Come on....let's have a treat!!

Affirmative Incantation

I allow Spirit to overflow me with the Divine Truth.

Thus I am propelled by the Power and Presence of this Truth to free my Mind and receive Its wisdom and reveal Its best ideas.

Today I consciously use this wisdom and these wonderful ideas for the following definite purpose: (reveal your goal for today).

I know my Mind is an outlet through which the Creative Intelligence of the Universe seeks fulfillment.

And so every thought and feeling I have, and any actions I take today, comes through a deep inner perception and the application of my Divine power, and the conviction to my stated goal.

Today I shall be fulfilled and, so too, the Creative Intelligence of the Universe shall be fulfilled.

I am a success!

1. Roto-Rooter Plumbing & Water Cleanup is a Cincinnati-based company providing plumbing repair, sewer & drain services, and water damage cleanup services to residential and commercial customers.                                                                                                                          Note:  The fair use doctrine, consistent with the First Amendment, allows a person to use another's trademark either in its non-trademark, descriptive sense to describe the user's own products (classic, or descriptive, fair use).

TURN IT ON

Jono at Unsplash.com

It is said:  "Necessity...is the mother of invention.” Do you think that's true? Is it "necessity"?

No matter your gender, your organs, or your relation to children...you are a mother. You may not be called that, or maybe you have; I'm sure I have once or twice. And you have an invention...it's your life.

"Necessity is the mother of invention." I'm not talking about urgency, although you may feel urgent. I'm not talking about difficulty, although you may be in difficulty. I'm not talking about hardships either, though you may have some. The mother of invention I'm talking about is your primary driving force for your life. Not just a need or requirement...your purpose. Aesop wrote a fable called THE CROW AND THE PITCHER. In it, he tells...

In a spell of dry weather, when the Birds could find very little to drink, a thirsty Crow found a pitcher with a little water in it. But the pitcher was high and had a narrow neck, and no matter how he tried, the Crow could not reach the water. The poor thing felt he might die of thirst.

Then an idea came to him. Picking up some small pebbles, he dropped them into the pitcher one by one. With each pebble, the water rose a little higher until at last, it was near enough so he could drink.

Moral:  In a pinch, good use of our wits may help us out.

Do we have to wait to be in a pinch or in urgency, difficulty, or hardship to turn on our wits? Know that it never takes adversary, difficulty, or hardship for you to turn It on. Know that it never has to come to you only after feeling stuck, useless, or "hitting bottom," to turn It on.

The power to create ...to mother a life of living your magnificence... is available right now. The power and process given to you from Spirit are available right now. That power and process are...

feeling and imagination. 

That's what it takes to create the mental equivalent, to mother the idea and give it birth. The creative process embedded in each of us is the mother of invention.

The mechanism of creation is hidden in the very depth of the subconscious, the female aspect or womb of creation.   ~Neville Goddard

When you are able to imagine the event and feel the feelings of experiencing the event, then the event shows up or the actions you must take to facilitate the event are revealed to you.

Feeling is the one and only medium through which ideas are conveyed to the subconscious.  ~Neville Goddard

You want money to buy a plane ticket somewhere? Well, then why not just imagine and feel the result of that plane ticket, with your name on it, in your hand. Who needs the middleman called money. You're not imagining stealing the ticket or getting it nefariously somehow, so let the Universe figure out the means. You just know the end of the imagined story, the plane ticket to your next wonderful adventure in your pocket.

Your feelings create the pattern from which your world is fashioned, and a change of feeling is a change of pattern.  ~Neville Goddard

As you stick with this imagination and feeling practice for your desire, you mother the belief in your subconscious and thus send off clear instructions to the Law. Francis Scovel Shinn tells a related story in THE GAME OF LIFE AND HOW TO PLAY IT:

I knew a man who wanted to buy a fur-lined overcoat. He and his wife went to various shops, but there was none he wanted. He said they were all too cheap-looking. At last, he was shown one, the salesman said was valued at a thousand dollars, but which the manager would sell him for five-hundred dollars, as it was late in the season.

His financial possessions amounted to about seven hundred dollars. The reasoning mind would have said, “You can’t afford to spend nearly all you have on a coat,” but he was very intuitive and never reasoned.

He turned to his wife and said, “If I get this coat, I’ll make a ton of money!” So his wife consented, weakly.

About a month later, he received a ten-thousand-dollar commission. The coat made him feel so rich, it linked him with success and prosperity; without the coat, he would not have received the commission. It was an investment paying large dividends!

I'm not telling you to go out and spend beyond your financial abilities, nor am I condoning buying fur-lined clothing. It really wasn't about the coat itself. It was the feeling the coat gave him.

You have to Feel Rich to be Rich

...and I'm not just talking about money.

Assume the feeling that would be yours when you realized or revealed that which you desire. That impresses the subconscious and puts you and your mothering system in a state. Not just a state of mind, but a state of being, having, and living. Here are the two gateways into the subconscious:

1) SLEEP

One-third of our life is sleeping, it is a natural door into the subconscious. In the state of sleep, the conscious and subconscious meet - like lovers touching.

As you feel, so do you impress her; and she, the perfect lover, gives form to these impressions and out-pictures them as the children of her beloved.  ~Neville Goddard

Feeling a function produces that state. That's why I recommend you to state and feel the affirmative incantations twice a day. They are not merely affirmations, they are cleansings, 'rebootings,' motherings, ....'creatings.' They are an imagining of a story that builds, inspires, motivates, and impresses upon your subconscious and belief system.

Our volition or choice of reaction or response

Our decision on perspective and perception

Our turning on our connection to Spirit or not

are our truest of freedoms!

Not speech or assembly, but choice, decision, and flipping It on.

The second gateway is prayer. This is where you really turn IT on, connect to IT, and reveal IT on purpose. Prayer is not just the act of affirmative words to the Universe or using spiritual mind treatment or other modalities. Prayer is in the words you say in conversation, your self-talk or inner dialogue, the meditations you have, and the thoughts you bear and hold. When you assume and affirm the feeling,  declare the possession of that idea or thing, and reveal the Divine Power, Love, and Intelligence in you, through patience, persistence, allowing, listening, letting go and surrendering, and speaking your appreciative and grateful word…you are turning It on.

IT - that Divine in you

These are the processes going on in sleep and prayer:

• Imagination is the key
• Feeling is the secret weapon
• Declaring is the gavel hitting the table
• Connecting to the love and wisdom of the Universe is the power

You can do all the shadow work or other modalities to have unconditional self-acceptance, other-acceptance, and life-acceptance. You can

1. Identify Irrational Thought Patterns and Beliefs
2. Challenge Irrational Beliefs
3. Gain Insight and Change Behavior

But without the commitment to Turn IT on with your mind and heart, and listening from your gut...your foundation is rocky; as in unstable, without a foundation.

Turn IT on...your connection to the Divine Mother in you.

Turn IT on...and watch your life change exponentially for good!

Affirmative Incantation

I am flipping the switch to position...ON!

On, to embodying confidence.

On, to embodying vitality.

On, to embodying opulence.

I am anchored to the Source and Substance of my supply with the on-switch active. My brain and heart are energized and focused. And any actions required are being taken with grace,ease, and wisdom.

I own my future. So, here I go to create excellence and live my life with abundance turned on.

What's Your Response?

Three men are traveling on a ship when they are accosted by the Devil. The Devil proposes that if each man drops something into the sea and he cannot find it, he will be that man's slave. If the Devil does find it, however, he will eat that man up. 

The first man reacts by immediately slipping off his Rolex watch and dropping in the ocean, confident of his choice. Poof, he disappears, eaten by Satan. The second man quickly drops a pure, clear diamond into the ocean, sure this cannot be found; and poof, he's gone, eaten up by the evil horned essence. 

The third man, not one to react quickly, thinks a moment, contemplating the situation and his life. He then fills a bottle with water and calmly pours it into the sea. Smiling, he turns to the Devil and says, “Try finding that!" 

Did you ever wish you would have responded versus reacted to a situation, comment, or condition? Or be able to take back the snark or yell or cursing or worse? Some people think that the words "react" and "respond" are synonyms, but to me, they are practically antonyms.

When I react to something, it's instantaneous, without thought, usually driven by lingering biases or fueled by some defense mechanism projecting my old stories or insecurities. It is subconsciously full of blame and I end up taking it out on the other person. This reaction has some unconscious survival theme to it using words or actions I come to regret.

A reaction usually comes from a short-sighted, sometimes aggressive, or out-of-control impulse. We might freeze, flinch, run away, or even want to physically fight someone - i.e. a Fight or Flight Reaction! Our stress is high, cortisol is running rampant, and you might shake or sweat as your hackles are up. You may have been triggered by the conversation to expose things you are in denial about or things you have repressed or regressed, stuff you have put away and rationalized. For example, say your boss yells at you, but you don't yell back, and later take it out on your partner by yelling at them over something stupid. Or you may blurt stuff out because you have intellectualized or compartmentalized a past hurt and the conversation triggered that memory. Reacting can be a dangerous answer to a situation.

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.  ~Victor Frankl

Responding, on the other hand, is a conscious, intentional, purposeful answer where we utilize our mindfulness skills before speaking or acting. Here, we are able to get beyond the emotion and into the information; more likely producing a calm, value-centered, and connected solution. It’s important to acknowledge that this is a skill that requires repeated practice. And that’s okay! Our journey in these bodies is always going to be an adventure, unfolding. 

I understand that it's doesn't always seem possible to respond versus react when in a stressful event full of triggers. If you feel threatened or hurt, your brain and body have what I call unnatural natural reactions that are coming from your stories, perspective, opinions that too often are hiding, waiting for the opportunity to get triggered and lash out from.

It is the goal of this philosophy to move towards interacting with ourselves, others, and the world from a more centered and peaceful place. That's part of the job of the guided meditations, affirmative incantations, and prayer; by becoming grounded, centered, mindful through spiritual practices, and remembering who we truly are. In fact, in these reactive-prone situations, your spiritual and mindfulness practices become the precursor to your use of responsive answers and actions in a situation.

Before I give you some tools to use, I want to say that we can use our reactions to observe what the heck is in our way from our skills in manifesting, moving forward, or getting healthy. They are an insight into the junk ideas, old stories, and perspectives that are blocking our bliss. So don't get down on yourself, use your reactions as a learning tool, along with the following:

This responding tool is called PLACE.

Pause, Label, Ask, Choose, Express

1. Pause

You know the MAD TV sketch with Bob Newhart as the psychiatrist who uses his fancy education to tell his patient, after her victim-filled rant, to just "STOP IT." Though the sketch is funny, especially to fans of The Bob Newhart Show, it's a reactive answer to her situation and yet, in the end, not a bad response. Of course, the more proper course would be to take her through the stories, asking questions, guiding her to come up with realizations and answers herself.. All of which would lead her and most of us to "stop it." Maybe it was a cry for that fictional psychiatrist to take a vacation and get refreshed in order for him to "stop it," stop reacting and begin responding again to his patients. At the very least, he needed to remember to PAUSE. 

The moment you notice you are triggered and that your energy has changed, take a moment to pause and breathe.

2. Label Your Emotions

Name it. What you’re feeling? is it anger, frustration, sadness, grief? Identifying how we feel helps us process our emotions. After all, it's our emotions that are getting in our way. So, label them, realize what's going on with you. It will take the heat off the matter.

3. Ask Yourself: Why?

You've paused and labeled, now ask yourself, "Why was I triggered? What was it that triggered me?" This can bring awareness to what is under the surface for you. It might not be what the person said that upset you (probably wasn't at all), but that it was a reminder of a different memory that sparks an unresolved emotion in you. Or perhaps you're just more sensitive today than yesterday, feeling unwell, or had a bad day, etc. The big question for yourself is "how can you best communicate what will best serve the discussion all are involved in at this moment?"

4. Choose A Mindful Response

This is the big one! Consider the labeled emotion(s) and discover the trigger before you choose what’s important to share about your experience. Choose to communicate the answer which is connected to the situation at hand, not your old stories. A response is not harmful or unproductive. A reaction most probably will be.

5. Express

When we think big picture, we put the situation in context. When we blend logic with our emotions and balance those immediate emotional responses with thoughts and facts, we fill in the blanks of what's reactive and what is responsive. Recognize your choices, and create a 20/20 vision (an imagined 20/20 vision, yes) to determine your best response to the current situation. We answer with thought rather than emotion, care versus haphazardness, mindfulness instead of fear, and all with love, not hate or anger.

The man who is asleep reacts; he knows nothing of action. And reaction is a binding: it binds you into new prisons, new chains. Response is out of freedom, hence it brings more freedom. Reaction is out of the past; you act according to your memories, built-in by your experiences, conditionings. You react not to the present, not in the present. You don`t reflect the real situation as it is; you go on interpreting it according to your past, your past experiences. The man who is awake is like a mirror: he reflects that which is the case. HE IS AWAKE.   ~Osho Rajneesh

Our best prayers, our most powerful meditations, and our greatest manifestations come from an absence of fear, chaos, desperation, and destructive emotions. Let us take away our old stories from the conversations with ourselves, others, and ultimately Spirit and replace them with thoughtful intentions, awakened purpose, and the energetic frequency of fulfillment. Move the energy of your conversations with a love of life and the Light of the Divine. Then watch your experiences glow with peace, prosperity, and ease.

Affirmative Incantation

I look from my deepest Source

I look at infinite and prosperous possibilities

And I look to a world where peace, Oneness, love, freedom, and appreciation reign.

Today I declare these ideas as the way I experience my life. And attract others who live this same divine, succulent, lovely, and sane vitality. I celebrate grace, ease, and gratitude as I sing the body electric and I dance the Song of Songs.

From the morning's dew till the night's slumber gongs, Spirit guides me to my best. 

Where Are You Looking From?

 I want to start out with two questions:

What does living a life of curiosity every day look like whether things are going smoothly or not?

How do you differentiate between your personal biased agenda and that of Spirit?

Centers for Spiritual Living's Global Vision states:

We see a world in which every person lives in alignment with their highest spiritual principle, emphasizing unity with God and connection with each other; a world in which individually and collectively we are called to a higher state of consciousness and action.

Where do we see that world from, though? Well, it all depends on where you are looking from ....or is it through?

Is it from the five senses?

Sight, sound, taste, smell, touch? Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, or skin?

Our brain?

The seat of the intellect, language, cognition, consciousness, creativity, logic, and knowledge? Where the electrochemical workings of 86 billion neurons and their synapses fire, and recognize, give meaning, and create narratives?

Most have the brain/head thing down, pronouncing to the world things like:

"I think...”

        “I understand...”

“I declare this in my life!”

“I reveal that in my life!”

Maybe the answers are in our hearts? 

That's the first organ that reveals itself in the body's development. It's not merely a muscle to pump blood, it has a complex intrinsic nervous system of over 40,000 sensory neurites firing off independently from those in the brain. The heart has been labeled by researchers in neurocardiology (defined by BH Nattelson as "the study of the neurophysiological, neuro- logical, and neuroanatomical aspects of cardiology, including especially the neurological origins of cardiac disorders") as a functional “brain.” This "brain" can learn independently, have its own memories, and feel and sense information. It also creates an energetic field to tell our brains whether we feel safe or not and acts as a regulator of our perceptions. 

We can think, pray or speak words until we are blue in the face and not a thing will manifest, at least not in the clearest way, unless we have feeling behind it. While we admire the intellect, we must realize that the intellect is not the creative factor in the Universe. Rather, it is feeling that is creative.   ~Ernest Homes 

As Neville wrote in his book, Feeling is the Secret:

Ideas are impressed on the subconscious through the medium of feeling. No idea can be impressed on the subconscious until it is felt, but once felt –be it good, bad or indifferent- it must be expressed. Feeling is the one and only medium through which ideas are conveyed to the subconscious.

Well, now we have got the heart-brain connecting. Is that the ticket on where we are looking from?

Maybe the answers are actually in our gut?

The enteric nervous system (ENS) consists of sheaths of neurons embedded in the walls of our gut. From the esophagus to the anus, the gut contains some 100 million neurons, more than in the spinal cord or the peripheral nervous system.  It uses more than 30 neurotransmitters, just like the brain, and carries 95% of the body's serotonin and other hormones and neurotransmitters that regulate mood, appetite, sleep, memory, and sexual desire and function. The vagus nerve carries information from the gut to the brain - mostly one way....up. But, as smart as it might sound, the ENS can’t balance your checkbook or compose a symphony, it mostly controls digestion from swallowing to the release of enzymes to break down food to the control of blood flow for nutrient absorption to elimination. However, the gut also controls self-preservation and mobilization and responds to challenges, opposition, and danger. It also helps determine our core sense of self through its reactions to our thoughts. The seat of inspiration seems to speak from there. Notice how in life we use phrases like:

“It takes guts to...” 

                         “My gut tells me...”

Some have the gut stuff/intuition thing going. The thoughts, feelings, and intuitive messages analyzed by the gut awaken us to a direct infusion of Divine Wisdom. But which one is fueling the life of curiosity from day-to-day, understanding, analyzing, and solving whether things are going smoothly? Which one is discerning between your biases, perceptions, and opinions and that of the wisdom of Spirit? What is driving your desires, revelations, and communing with the Universe? Is it ego or Spirit? 

When we Edge God Out, our ego’s desires can come from a place of scarcity, lack or fear, and the insatiable desire for more (which is a hint to a belief in scarcity), or to prove a sense of self-worth. When we are Entertaining God Only, Spirit’s call is one of Wholeness, Oneness, Infinite possibilities, Creativity, Freedom, and Truth. We are taking cues from the Infinite Wisdom of the Universe, beyond time and space. The spiritual practices of visioning, affirmative prayer (Spiritual Mind Treatment), and meditation assist us in letting go of those personal agendas which ultimately just get in our way or slow us down, and align with Divine Intelligence to experience a life of flow and ease, and manifesting our desires for ourselves and the world. That includes manifesting ideas, solutions, intuitions, as well as stuff.

As individualized expressions of the One Universal Energy, we have access to the infinite wisdom and intelligence of all space and time. It flows through us, as us, and for us as an individualized expression of this energy. However, it only does so to the degree that we set our previous ideas aside and tune in to its frequency, awakening to the impress of Universal Spirit. This direct revelation is available to us through our intuition, intelligence, and feelings working together; which places us smack in the middle of Heaven - the state of awareness of our True Nature.

Though we experience our True Nature to the degree we become conscious of it, we can use our built-in toolbox, the Divine Matrix, to be where we are looking from. The Divine Matrix is a structure that combines the simultaneous use of the Cephalic (head), cardiac (heart), and enteric (gut) systems. When we are looking from The Divine Matrix, the head, heart, and gut brains are communicating with each other, sussing up the situation as a unit, and coming up with the solutions as an integrated system of our consciousness, values, and beliefs. The Mind is an ever-expansive individualized essence of Universal Energy. This is how we experience life to the fullest.  And in doing so, we habitually, and as second-nature (though actually, it's our original-nature) we answer all instances, experiences, conditions, happenings, etc. with:

What is Spirit's Highest Idea of Itself in this moment?

Yes, the question and the answer in one sentence: What is Spirit’s Highest Idea of Itself in this moment, this situation? Living in this question invites us to listen to and from a different place, beyond the egoistic mind to that connection with the Universal Presence Mind, which is seeking to express in, as, and through us. 

Sometimes we require adjustments and repairs to our systems. Maybe our state of mind/being or belief is off-kilter and the following are not showing up:

• love for life
• joy for existence
• motivation to be alive
• state of gratitude

In essence, then, we are not in the groove of our Godness.

So, what do we do?

Ask questions to our most inner self. Questions open us to something new. Questions invite curiosity as a way of being. Questions break us away from what we think we know and desire and invites something greater within to guide us. It's time to re-awaken our heart intelligence and connect it to our brain intelligence, and simultaneously be open and ready for intuitive intelligence. As Ramana Maharshi (Hindu sage, early-mid 20thC) reminds us: 

...when the mind stays in the Heart, the ‘I’ which is the source of all thoughts will go, and the Self which ever exists will shine. 

There is a Cherokee word - ‘shante ishta’.  It means "the single eye of the heart," the single eye that sees what’s true, without judgment. Here's a spiritual practice that will put you on a direct path to heart-brain harmony, celebrating the shante ishta and awakening the intuited wisdom:

1. Close your eyes

It brings your awareness within

2. Put your hand on your heart!

  The heart is at the center of the body, the center chakra or energy point in your body. It is the gateway to an Intelligence both harmonious and holistic. And the touch brings a powerful awareness to this gateway.

3. Now be aware of your breathing and allow it to slow down

  Count 5 secs in through your nose and 5 secs out from your mouth. Do this a few times to get used to that rhythm. Allow it to take root in the cadence of your breath. This signals to the body that you are safe, freeing you from any stresses and opening the body and brain to healing.

4. Think or imagine someone or something that you care about, appreciate, or have gratitude or compassion for.

     Allow yourself to feel it. It could be for any person, this community, your puppy, something you received, or an insight you had.

Care, Appreciation, Gratitude, or Compassion!

This spiritual practice connects all three brains - the intuition from the gut, the feelings and intelligence of the heart, and the logic and knowledge of the brain. It harmonizes them for optimal decision making, creative discovery, learning, transcending, and manifesting. It gives one resilience in this ever-changing and too often turbulent world, inspiring one from the chaotic to the cosmos, and releasing one from the unformed destructive whirling dervishes to the lovingly controlled constructive creation. This practice also releases 1300 biochemical reactions that promote immunity and anti-aging.

Another way to bring the Divine Matrix in line is with what I call an Affirmative Incantation. An A. I. is similar to an affirmation, but is more thorough and goes deeper. Taking a logical and heartfelt path to your best self, it is a formula for consciously transcending success. It is alchemistic versus the repeated one or two-sentence affirmation which too often becomes a mish-mash of words that lose their power and begin to sound like the teacher from the Charlie Brown comics - "wah-wah-wah-wah-waaaah."

Here is an affirmative incantation for you to use right now: 

In this moment, I recognize that my life is the embodiment of Spirit’s highest idea of Itself as me. I see my Highest Self as my daily self, embodying every thought, feeling, and belief with the inspiration, love, and intelligence of the Universal Presence.

In an abundance of affluence:

I seek and I find.

I sow and I reap.

I discover and I engage.

I reveal and I utilize.

I Am experiencing my life through the best ideas in health, wealth, relationships, and creativity to bust through, soar, and zoom into a fabulous day.

Let us remember that there is only One Power and Presence, the One Source back of all things. And knowing there is only One Life, this Life must be who I am; who you are. Therefore each of us has the ability to allow the Infinite Wisdom of this Power and Presence to express through them, by living in the question: “What is Spirit’s highest vision of Itself as me in this moment?”

Living from a place of curiosity, and remaining open and willing to receive Spirit’s highest vision of Itself expressing through any situation in our lives, allows us to live and act from a place of Divine Guidance in order to create our Heaven, right here and now. 

• Are you willing to be surprised by what you discover about yourself?
• Everything is for our learning and growth, are you open? 
• Are you willing to be more interested in your spiritual growth than advocating for your limitations? 

We learn through curiosity. Remaining open to experience a shift of perspective, a new awareness, and a heightened experience of life is the key to an abundance of prosperity in all parts of our life.

Are you willing?

Resistance is Futile

 

Our theme for January was "Love It."  February brought us:

• Black History Month and part of the Season of Non-Violence
• Groundhog Day, Tater Tot, and Ukelele Day is also in February
• So is Washington, Lincoln, Bob Marley, and Frederick Douglass' Birthdays
• The Periodic Table has a day in February and so does doggy bones and toothaches
• The Chinese New Year was on the 12th – of the Ox
• The Jewish holiday, Purim was on the 26th, commemorating the victory of Queen Esther of Persia in saving the Jewish people from execution by Haman, the advisor to the king
• And Lent began on the 17th, reminding Christians of Yeshua's 40-day sacrifice in the desert

Lives to remember, foods to enjoy, events to commemorate, rituals in which to partake, ideas to contemplate, and of course, love to celebrate - so much in 28 days. But all of that is man-made. I say so not to lessen its significance, but to show its exquisiteness and uniqueness. A uniqueness only possible through the loving expression of God.

In going within, we do not turn to our own spirituality or our own goodness or our own strength or our own knowledge; but we go within to unleash the Infinite Invisible.  ~Joel S. Goldsmith, The Art of Meditation 

We are individuations of the One Universal Power & Presence and we each act in this Oneness to unleash that Infinite Invisible from within. We don't have to spend days in the desert or atop a mountain or live in a cave. Each is their own mystics able to live the mystical experience by letting God be God in them and as them.

You are Divine now...it is your birthright. Your uniqueness, talents, and dreams are all waiting for you to WAKE UP and accept your divinity! It is only our resistance to this Truth that gets in our way. When we resist, we strive against or oppose something, the polar opposite of working a resolution. Changing things in our life begins with not wanting to experience this or that anymore; to set up a barrier to reliving that idea. But that is where resistance should quickly end.

One of the most notorious creatures from the Star Trek universe is the Borg. In the 1990 third-season finale of The Next Generation series, the evil Borg sent an audio message to those whom their collective would absorb (imagine ominous robotic voice):  “We are the Borg. Your biological and technological distinctiveness will be added to our own. Resistance is futile.”

“Wow,” you may think, “Rev. Jay is comparing our Oneness and connection to Spirit to the Borg?” In a way, yes. I don't claim we are all some sort of spiritual cyborgs roaming the earth. But take away your biology and technology and what is left? ...your etiology – your causation and origination ... your most basic self - your Godness!

We are in a collective of sorts, not evil like the Borg, but one that is available through the conscious activity of embodying Spirit; a complete emancipation from discord that no one can truly take away without our permission.

On July 9, 1868, the 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified. Garrett Epps, Professor of constitutional law at the University of Baltimore, wrote this about the 14th amendment:

Its centerpiece is the idea that citizenship in the United States is universal—that we are one nation, with one class of citizens, and that citizenship extends to everyone born here. Citizens have rights that neither the federal government nor any state can revoke at will; even undocumented immigrants—"persons", in the language of the amendment—have rights to due process and equal protection of the law.

Yet, the road to freedom does not truly lay in amendments to a constitution or any set of man-made laws again, not to lessen the efforts of Federick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Thaddeus Stephens, and other abolitionists or 13th/14th amendment proponents. However, freedom must be made first in the minds and hearts of those whose values and beliefs equaled that pronouncement. It may have started as a resistance to hate, inequality, and unjust actions and ideas, but accepting it first -remember this is not about permission- acceptance allows us to transform those ideas from the resistance of the negative into working for something that is positive and a part of Nature's Laws. Before emancipation could be a fact in the United States, the Truth of our equality and Oneness within the creations of the Universe had to be recognized and accepted to set man free. In other words, our minds had to echo through our communion with the eternal Thing Itself.

The sooner we awaken to Truth and live it holistically, and not just in our heads, the sooner we shall become factually free & happy, no matter the conditions we experience or the laws or amendments to any constitution. Viktor E. Frankl, Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, philosopher, and Holocaust survivor - founder of logotherapy, a search for a life meaning as the central human motivational force - wrote:

The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance. ...Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.  

Yes, we are obligated to enact laws to codify our understanding of Truth. God does not condone enslaving or mistreating anyone and we cannot be free in our spirit nor free in our mind when we withhold human liberty from another; neither can we be truly free when we kill, maim, cage, strike, spit upon, tear gas or shoot another. We can only be completely free when we respect and honor all of life. Those not participating in the Divine collective of Oneness, peace, and Universal love are bound to suffer the consequences of having a void in their heart filled with more hate, fear, shame helplessness, powerlessness, injustice, and inadequacy....all learned feelings one decides to embrace.

But when you fill that void, no matter the size, with Spirit, you gain a foundation to build upon. You step into a world where kinship with all life connects and prospers in you, guides you with spiritual wisdom...a world that will show up without police brutality, white privilege, or any cultural beliefs of superiority and its inherent arrogance and delusions

I am not telling you to bypass what may be lurking inside - confusing you, irritating you. The resolution, however, must begin with who you are. Looking for approval outside of yourself is futile - it will never fill any void. Remember you are worthy NOW and you're pre-approved for your highest good now, as well.

     Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God.  ~Teilhard de Chardin

Are there areas of joy in your life that could support you in remembering that God is always everywhere equally present?

Find them...Nurture them. 

Incorporate them where the joy isn't as strong

It’s foolish and futile, to dedicate your time and attention to resisting what you don’t want. Reapply your energy toward what you do want and plan a prudent spiritual practice, then a wise practical course of action. When we choose to love the awakening to our highest self, we ease the effects of the negative and ease the inclusion of the positive, and we reveal the wisdom of the ages and disclose the best we have to offer to the world and beyond. Believing and loving who you are is a powerful antidote for lack and limitation, depression and distress, dis-harmony and dis-ease.

Allow the Divine's Love and Wisdom into your life

Resistance is futile!

Affirmative Incantation

Divine Love acts through me and the Law of Love frees me to be my best. Today I offer myself to loving this loved life. 

I am dedicated to being my best today, declaring superlative thoughts, revealing my highest ideas, best practices, the deepest empowering beliefs, and the most succulent experiences.

This day is my day and I express it with joy in my heart, a twinkle in my eye, and a spring in my step.

Watch out world, here I Am!

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Going With the Flow

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius encouraged people not to waste energy by fighting against society. He called it..."Going with the flow." Now, going with the flow has come to mean having a relaxed attitude, letting life carry you along. After all - “what you resist persists,” right?

I've been described as someone who goes with the flow; easy-going, keeping my neutrality in conflicts. Yet I have found that the practice of going with the flow can also lead to laziness or playing the spiritual bypass game or having a reluctance to taking life seriously or deeply or by the collar, when necessary.

Today, I want to about the power and depth in going with the flow in a spiritually conscious & mindful way by going with the flow on the River of the Divine You. 

Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them – that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.  ~Lao-Tzu

Going with the flow doesn't have to be a cop-out, accepting life's lemons as the end of the story. You and I create the flow by getting in the Flow on the River of Love and Law. It may not be all peaches and cream and may involve some tough relaxing into the chaos, learning not to stress, and responding versus reacting. The main action behind going with the flow is not just laying back, it's taking hold of the consciousness cord that connects us to the Power of Manifestation where we can get guidance. We cannot practice the love of life in isolation or in a vacuum. Every spiritual path and all the mystics have described that each of us in nature is connected to that single Divine River where the wellspring of infinite possibilities flows. 

Within this Infinite Mind, each individual exists. We are not separated from Life, and neither is It separated from us. We are separate entities in It — individualized centers of God Consciousness.  ~Dr. Holmes, The Science of Mind

When we awaken to the Truth, we become open to the impulse & guidance of Spirit, inspired by imagination and wisdom, directed by our values, committed to our core principles, and dedicated to transformation and transcendence - no matter the circumstances. Leo Babauta, in the blog, Zen Habits, says:

No matter how much structure we create in our lives, no matter how many good habits we build, there will always be things that we cannot control — and if we let them, these things can be a huge source of anger, frustration, and stress. 

This conflict or condition has already happened; we can't go back to make it not have happened at least not yet. So what do we do when we step in it when junk shows up in our lives - big or small? I had a kidney stone journey in 2013:

4 days of cramps

4 days of feeling like Sisyphus...invoking powerful names = Jesus, Iron Man ...and phrases I cannot repeat...jumping up and down to rattle the stone around and break it up. I noticed the usual go with the flow idea went out of my mind as quickly as the cursing came out of my mouth. Then I became focused on not resolving the pain but remembering who I was. I had plenty of moments of health worries, possible financial concerns, and just the agonizing pain but it was my consciousness work that brought relief. 

Kamal Ravikant wrote:

Most of our pain, most of our suffering comes

from resistance to what Life is. And when we

resist what life is, we suffer. When you can say

yes to life, surrender to life and say: “Okay, what

should I be now?” That’s where power comes from.

There is a story about a young martial arts student was under the tutelage of a famous master. One day, the master was watching a practice session in the courtyard.

He realized that the presence of the other students was interfering with the young man’s attempts to perfect his technique. The master could sense the young man’s frustration. He went up to the young man and tapped him on his shoulder. “What’s the problem?” he inquired.

“I don’t know,” said the youth with a strained expression. “No matter how much I try, I am unable to execute the moves properly”.

“Before you can master technique, you must understand harmony, my son. Come with me, I will explain,” replied the master.

The teacher and student left the building and walked some distance into the woods until they came upon a stream. The master stood silently on the bank for several moments before he said, “Look at the stream. There are rocks in its way. Does it slam into them out of frustration? Watch it simply flow over and around them and move on! Be like the water and you will know what harmony is.”

Whether its COVID or a broken pipe, don’t dig in your heels, push, shove, and struggle until the veins pop out on your head. Stop saying no. Say yes and accept whatever it is.

Now the act of accepting doesn't mean giving permission ...accepting lets us stop thinking we must swim upstream or wish we could go back in time somehow ...accepting turns the dial to tune into and allow the nourishing Flow of the River of Divine Intelligence to carry us over and around the rocks. Here are a few daily practice tips from Bev Janisch:

1. Learn to distinguish between thoughts and feelings that arise from the condition or event – is it

bringing in your small self or your [highest self]?

2. Ask yourself: What is my heart’s desire? What inspired action arising from my soul am I meant to

take today or in this situation?

3. Create a daily habit of communicating with Source through meditation, prayer or “divine chats.”

Going with the Flow is about creating awareness, space, and practices that enable us to tune in to what Divine wisdom is intuiting and then honoring what we hear.

• Commit to participating in the awakening of your spiritual magnificence and personal power

• Commit to catching the spark of Divine ideas

You may be in pain or in fear of a prognosis or consequence, uncomfortable with making some changes in your habits of thought and action. It may be messy, chaotic, sad, or dirty, but as we understand that any yuckiness is the perfect outcome of the flow of the river of life we decided to float upon, we become open to and ready for the ideas, practices, & solutions to incorporate into our boat. Going with the flow doesn't mean you just sit there, hoping to become dislodged. By going with the Flow using your spiritual tools, you will rise up from the hurricane of discomfort. So go ahead and rage and weep for a few minutes, then take a breath and tap into the River of Divine Wisdom and allow your intuition to inform you of your options and find your best practices from a place of “yes” and acceptance. There is beauty in everything around us if we look at it as perfect.

Go with the flow of your life

Go with the flow of your community

Go with the flow of your health

Go with the flow of this time of COVID

Go with the flow of your relationships

It doesn't mean you don't take action. It means you go with the flow on the River of Divine Intelligence and Love to take action with the wisdom of the ages, the power of the mighty Mississippi, the best advice available from the Universe and Its creations.

Affirmative Incantation

I am stepping into the Circle of Love which surrounds me with ever-expanding energy that vibrates at the speed

of the Divine, awakening me to my best self.

In this Circle of Love, I lift up my mind to the highest thoughts and ideas.

In this Circle of Love, I lift up my heart to the highest frequencies of joy, passion, enthusiasm, and purpose.

In this Circle of Love, I honor that which binds us all together in everlasting Unity. I work the Universal Law to

cause and effect my dreams into an experience.

It is beautiful in this Circle.

It is calm in this Circle.

It is powerful in this Circle.

In this Circle of love, I am living Life to Its most abundant, highest, and prosperous; allowing the best of me to flow.

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PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with becoming better or being happier. Enlightenment is the crumbling away of untruth. It’s seeing through the facade of pretense. It’s the complete eradication of everything we imagined to be true.  ~Adyashanti

Those who have heard me before know that I am focused on construction, not destruction

• replacing, not displacing
• application vs annihilation
• eliminating by activating
• losing bad habits through the creation of new ones to inhabit
• constituting the positive to decommission the negative
• leaving the school of hard knocks and enrolling in the university of Universal opportunities 

We are not victims....we are victors!
We do not survive...we thrive!
We do not struggle...we ascend!

I've encouraged you to move from thinking about the Divine idea to feeling It and experiencing It using spiritual practices and mystical experiences to rise above and beyond any one path, religion, or tradition; like a mountain with many trails, a tree with branches aplenty, or a river with numerous tributaries, deltas & wells.

We are not bound by the precedent of our habitual thoughts - they can be changed. We are not bound by the precedent of our beliefs or our actions, statements, or positions, they can all be changed, replaced, reconfigured, adapted, alternated, dissipated, elevated, updated, refreshed, or traded-in. We are freed by Principle - to surrender to the Truth, step around & past the mere facts in our life or the temporary diversions, deviations, detours, and roundabouts, and put them in the rearview mirror

How? 

By falling in love with the process. From centering and grounding through prayer and meditation, embodying Spirit directly, communing with the Divine with intention and purpose, and by practicing the ancient wisdom, New Thought, neuroscience, mysticism, metaphysics, love, peace, powerful grounding, centering, and the affirmative prayer aspects of clean slate spirituality

You don't have to have engaged in anything nefarious to join the clean-slate movement. You don't have to have immersed yourself in a series of addictions to have a do-over. You don't have to have committed a crime to get a second chance. It matters not if we welcome that clean slate or it is thrust upon us. Take the time to love and practice the opportunity for greater clarity, creativity, and new possibilities to emerge. 

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Sometimes, maybe most of the time, it isn't easy. Just start with the decision to practice some mindful spiritual activity, love the decision, and get passionate about the decision. Your willingness to embrace the moment, confront any pain is a powerful Practice of the Presence of the Divine. It is a practice of Oneness, Love, and Creation, a practice of engaging in quieting the mind & body and awakening the heart and soul, and a practice of living in alignment with our Science of Mind Principles and being congruent in thought, word, and behavior.

Loving a spiritual practice can be exhilarating or terrifying...usually both. I have faced a blank page, illness, an instant family, divorce, career changes, major moves, losses, successes - just like most of you. Many I have liked / many, not so much...clean slates both wanted and unwanted. Too often I find myself with a lot of 'doing' going on, however, the bigger answers always came from tapping the Source of Creation and Infinite Potentiality that is within me, using the heart instead of the brain, and the vibration of the Divine instead of the logic in the head. I know I have talked about it before...

        Cultivating self-awareness and self-reflection

...looking after and loving yourself

        Establishing a routine of examining your beliefs, behaviors, and fears

...and asking your heart whether or not they still serve you

Focusing on what you WANT

Not worrying about what other people think 

Following your passion and taking action

Surrounding yourself with allies, mentors, and like-minded people

But I get it. The birth of anything new may be full of pain and messiness, emotions may emerge...that's okay because they act as an inner GPS, letting you know if your thoughts are moving you further from or closer to Source. And any new or renewed spiritual practice can be sloppy or uninspiring:

Have you ever sat on your floor in the quiet, your hands placed on your knees, and you tell your brain to be still?

I have...it was anything and everything but...and that's okay.

Have you ever wondered if it is wrong to scratch during meditation or prayer?

  It's not...scratching an itch is self-care. Give it its moment and scratch.

I remember thinking it was smart to time myself in meditation. Have you?

Very quickly you think it's been forever, so you look at your phone and you can swear you hear it laughing at you. You see the timer reads 2:42 (two minutes and 42 seconds) and you set it for 10. It's okay - go ahead, have a stretch and try again. But first, stick your tongue out at your phone – I'm sure the timer was wrong (lol).

Here's an idea:  when you have to remind yourself to meditate, pray, do your vision board, etc.

...tell yourself you're practicing self-care
...just be sure to leave out the “f-ing” part
... self-care is more zen without the swear words....usually.

While in spiritual practice, have you ever wondered about the quiet? if it’s okay to NOT be quiet?

I have....so I put my phone timer on pause and asked Siri about it. She didn't know and cursed at me for pausing my meditation.

Or have you ever thought, “Did I pay the credit card this month?”

...and then chastise yourself with, “Shhhhh, relax.” And a few minutes later, “Wait, DID I?”  I have...this morning

Sometimes I decide that sitting on the floor trying to meditate isn’t what self-care looks like today so I put on some clothes (pandemic lock-down and all) and go sit outside or walk or watch a bird at the feeder or listen to Laura Berman on this evil contraption that times my meditations. Soon enough, sitting on the ground, my eyes closed, listening to the talent and wisdom and just being, not paying attention to the seconds or the weather or goals or duties or bills or the news...just remembering, I Am enough. By the time the song ends, I take a deep breath, stand, and know that I have just done some self-care.

Meditation and prayer?

Keep at it!

If that Treatment or prayer didn't feel good - start over. If you think your vision board is too rule-following - start over. 

• To live from the space of clarity and possibility, we are called to Practice the Presence regularly
• To release thoughts of past or future and ground ourselves in the present, we are called to Practice the Presence regularly 
• To experience whatever understanding or gift the moment has for us, we are called to Practice the Presence regularly

But seek first the kingdom of God and Its righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  ~Matthew 6:33

It doesn't mean you don't plan or set goals or ignore the future...you create the future by your practices today. 

Don’t allow your wounds to transform you into someone you are not.                                                                                              ~Paulo Coelho 

If crying in the shower is part of your spiritual practice, especially in the frustrations of lockdown, closed schools, work-at-home, unemployment, and everything else many of us are going through this last year - have at it.....love it....use it!

Spiritual practice is a personal, ever-evolving transformational tool. Just...Practice, Practice, Practice and

...make it to your own Carnegie Hall to get to!
...your own healthy body....your own happiness!
...your own lovefest....to create your own fabulous life!

Affirmative Incantation

I welcome the promise of a clean slate that every moment holds. And so, in this moment and the next and the next...

I have a renewed energy to get things done.

I do things that are fulfilling and gratifying.

I communicate clearly, specifically, and lovingly with myself and all around me.

I am focused on a habit of happiness and health.

I have the courage to step out of my comfort zone and be victorious.

I revel in the Truth that I am backed by the Universe in every solution that is required.

I protect and care for all that I love.

As I feel this love of all I Am, I Am being this Love of all I Am. With this feeling and beingness alive in the deepest part of me, I live this Love of all I Am in all I do right here, right now, and forevermore.

FORWARD...MARCH

 The spiral of life is upward.  Evolution carries us forward.   ~Science of Mind

Like many others, I too was struck weeping and patriotic as we stepped into a new political stance, a new national leadership, and a re-kindling of Light, here in the physical.

I am inspired to declare on this day that we step out of what we thought was a never-ending shade (as Amanda Gorman described)

...the day we step past the loss we carry

This is the day we leave behind the sea we have waded to stand tall on the land of the free and to feel safe in our home of Divine bravery where limitations are sent on their way, fears are held at bay, and peace, health, prosperity, and love are no longer delayed

If we needed a reason, an excuse, some motivation to plan, dream, envision or set our intention to the work of moving forward, one has arrived for both this nation, which Amanda Gorman described as

...striving to forge a union with purpose

To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man & womyn

...and ourselves

I declare this purpose has arrived for each of us to experience where it is that we want to go forward as an individual, a family, a community, a nation, and a world with all the possibilities found in the infinite possibilities of the Universe.

We are bringing forth from beyond the horizon of our self-induced boxes of limitation and past the edges we had put around ourselves, our communities, and our movement; a transcendent growth, yet the dawn is ours before we knew it. She said...

...before we knew it

And yet always there awaiting us to reveal It

Somehow we do it

Somehow we've weathered and witnessed

a nation that isn't broken, but simply unfinished

As it is in this nation, so too is it in our lives - simply unfinished. We are not done, and we shall never be done. We have aligned ourselves with a teaching that emphasizes unity with God and each other, a faith that calls the world, both individually and collectively, to a higher state of consciousness and action for a life where our spiritual principles/practices like affirmative incantations, affirmative prayer, breath, contemplation, imagination, inspiration, and meditation from 20 secs to 20 mins are always available to awaken to, clothe ourselves in, and continuously experience our highest, most divine ideas choosing to think and feel, believe and reveal, declare and experience our best, most vibrant, prosperous, and succulent life.

The Law is on our side – the spiritual Law- to attract, manifest, demonstrate, compensate, mirror, reciprocate, magnetize, harmonize, and boomerang our intention, our focus, our purpose, and our glory to the right here and now.

In this year of awakening, we are called to intensify our Self-awareness, illuminate our alignment with Spirit in all our motivations, inner dialogue, and hidden beliefs; illuminate it with the Light of Divine Intelligence. We are called to awaken our willingness to observe and take responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, and word choices.

Self-awareness is the foundation for conscious choices, the wise imaginative ones from staying open-hearted to Universal wisdom, the Divine choices brought through our communion with this loving intelligence that Ernest Holmes describes in Can We Talk to God like this:

Consider the Spirit as a warm, pulsating, reciprocal thing. It presses against us, It flows through us. It is our intelligence. It is a great universal urge and surge. It is a warm colorful thing. It is a beautiful thing... Know that there is something more than law; an intelligence to which we may come for inspiration, for guidance, for direction; a power responding to us, a Presence pressing against us, an animation flowing through us, a light within us. 

Where do I go when the whirling dervish seems to take over in my head?...HOME

Where do I go when I have lost something, and going cray-cray finding it? ...HOME

Where do I go to keep the motivation of my passions alive when I'm frustrated about manifesting them on time?  Or have doubts, worries, and other junk?

I go Home ...to commune with the power and presence of Creation here in the Divine Matrix, where the wisdom of the One Mind occupies the body in head, heart, and gut – toes, elbows, and spleen. Richard Strozzi-Heckler, a somatic leadership coach says:

When we connect with the core energy [of the body] we contact a vast reservoir of wisdom, compassion, and intelligence that we have neglected, over three billion years of embodied knowledge of survival, adapting, social intelligence, coordinating, intuition, and reciprocity lie largely unused in us.  If we learn to listen to this life energy, and to act from it, there’s much it can teach us about living spiritual values while our feet are firmly on the ground. This somatic intelligence [the living process where neither mind nor body is separate from the other] affirms the truth of our interdependence, interconnectness, and a power that lies beyond the self. 

Though It is a living process, we must choose to get in it and take the ride. While on the ride, we shall turn away from the past, turn away from the conditions that do not serve us. This is not to bypass the conditions, not to ignore our feelings, or stock them away in some attic of the subconscious, pretending they did not happen, but to transcend them

Our teaching can be attractive to those who think they can bypass their emotions using such phrases and mantras as: 

“We are 100% responsible for our experiences” 
“Everything happens for good or for a reason” 
“You are exactly where you are supposed to be”

Though these statements are true, they become heartless platitudes; unhelpful, unsupported, dis-empowering spiritual ideas and practices to sidestep or avoid facing unresolved emotional issues, psychological wounds, and unfinished developmental tasks. As we march forward past the breach of this first month of 2021, let us not deny the complex nature of our lives and of our Universe, let us not deny we played a role in what manifests. 

We all have unconscious patterns and beliefs that we let go wild with our thought choices; they may be unconscious or subconscious, but they are not out of reach. We can face them and...

• process the emotions through our systems
• learn from them and re-calibrate our thinking
• awaken our factory-setting perspective from the depths of our core
• reveal and declare the Truth of who we are by drowning the head voice with the heart, responding instead of reacting, and changing those beliefs that are in our way to the ones that lead the way

…if you want to live a more spiritual life, live a more human life. Be more truly madly deeply human.   ~Jeff Brown, Grounded Spirituality 

I know I have some of that to work to do on myself. Join me and be not afraid! By constantly and consistently expanding our awareness and understanding that too many of us swim in some form of privileged 'you against me' mentality, or victim-hood, systemic racism, sexism, ageism, and other isms perspective, and then communing with the Divine within more often than the brain within, we will be able to step up, lean in, do the mental work in brain, heart, and gut. Here are your marching orders:

This is the...

day ... we step out of the shade,
aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it
For there is always light,
if only we're brave enough to see it
If only we're brave enough to be it

Be brave enough to be It ... to be the highest you can be and go forward....always forward. You've got the strength of the powers of creation behind you to get through it, get past it, and manifest your best life yet. 

Believe It, Work It, Be It, Live It

I'll be joining you....let's go forward... and march!

Affirmative Incantation

inspired by St. Teresa of Avila

The Divine has a body on earth...mine:

Hands that are mine and feet that are mine.

Eyes of mine from which It looks out,

And ears of mine with which It hears the cry, listens for its meaning, and begins the healing.

With my feet, Divine’s compassion to the world goes about the movement of doing good;

And with my hand to my heart, It blesses as I answer the call of the Divine urge to be in joyous song.

Today I use these hands to take out the trash of my past

Today I use these feet to walk away from the dump of my junk

Today I use these ears to hear the sounds of forgiveness and peace in my mind

Today I use these eyes to see the best in me, the Highest in me....and in all who surround me.

Today I use this mind and heart to know gratitude and grace flows freely within me

And today I use all of the Divine in my body to be the holistic harbinger of prosperity for all parts of my life

I am the ever-evolving living embodiment of Divine Love and Intelligence and I use It every day and spread It around the world in every way.