Lessons and Blessings

Life’s Lessons Become Life’s Blessings:

by Genece Hamby -

Life’s lessons come in a variety of forms and in varying degrees of learning. There are premium lessons that shake you at the very roots of your existence. Basics that teach you daily how to improve upon the things you do at home, at school, socially, in your relationships or in your career. Lessons that you don’t ask for, some you create from stupidity or ignorance, and others that you would have preferred not to learn.

Some people play their lessons over and over as if it were their favorite song. They play them to trigger old memories so they can relive their past while repeating the lesson. Depending upon the reality they create; they evade, criticize, rebel, condemn, become righteous, fill up with shame and guilt, and/or become a victim or a bully.

On the other hand, there are those who authentically complete their lessons. They learn to become more tolerant and compassionate, kinder, more understanding, and accepting of life’s happenings. They learn that whenever they decide to act with kindness, they are making the right decision. They’ve learned that if someone else is unkind or throws cruel words at them, they must live so that no one else will believe it. Even when seeking help, they know that entering into stillness is oftentimes more healing than words of advice.

Sadly most people “do time,” forgetting that “in time” all things must pass. They invest in their life’s lessons as victims of their own mind; a mind that consistently judges them or the rest of the world. This can create an interesting chain of lessons that cycle in and out of one’s being. Lessons that chase us up a tree, up stream, inside of the box, into a corner, at center stage, and deeper into our hearts in order to get our full attention.

Instead of embracing the concept of “doing time,” just think how much more powerful it is when we anchor ourselves to a “timeless” way of being and to something greater than our ego’s smallness. We turn our life’s lessons into golden opportunities instead of investing in the suffering that eventually turns into some form of punishment—either done to ourselves or to those around us.

Our soul records everything. It mirrors back to us what we feed and what we feel about ourselves. That’s why it’s best to learn from all of the lessons—the ones that are hard, scary, near death, painful, joyous, exciting, awakening, revealing, serious, funny, and of course, all real in our mind.

On the outside, you can actually see how people wear their life’s lessons. Some bodies are burdened with extra weight, others wear body scars and bruises or worn out faces that look sad, beaten and angry, while others show rigidity in their movements. With others who have relaxed more through their lessons, we might see the bliss of their hips rhythmically move as they walk, the curves of their smile and brightness of their eyes from the “aha” moments that brought them deeper peace or awakenings, or perhaps the lightness of their feet as they’ve learned to walk on coals that used to burn and broken shards of glass that used to cut.

Living through and mastering the more challenging of life’s lessons takes tremendous courage in order to face them, to hunt them down (they can be very slippery and tricky), to embrace their prickly textures and stinging bites, and to accept that each one holds something hidden that was buried by the moment. All lessons are created in our mind’s eye, stored in the cells of our bodies and in our emotional memory bank.

Lessons come from how we perceive our experiences and our beliefs. For example, if you believe that life is painful, you might allow others to knock you down, rob you of self-esteem, cheat you from opportunities, “get” what they wanted from you, and back you into a corner so “they” could win. And if you call yourself a “survivor,” you probably brush off the dirt, patch up the wounds and pull yourself back up onto the horse. No one is probably going to keep you down for long, including yourself. After all, you are a survivor!

I’ve come to some interesting conclusions about life’s lessons. Our egos falsely judge how we handle life, making it more difficult to learn what we need. Most of us are much harder on ourselves than we are on other people. To really learn the lessons that bring us inner peace and greater wisdom, we need to discover that we are designed to be more resilient and strong than we give ourselves credit.

Personally, nothing is as rewarding as discovering the seed of an equal or greater blessing in each lesson. It is fully embracing them head-on instead of mulling them over from an ivory tower of isolation or being immersed in a lot of “busy-ness” in pretense that we’ve mastered the course of life.

Life’s lessons become life’s blessings! We reap their benefits when we accept to learn them as they are offered to us. One by one, each lesson is meant to awaken our spirits so we remember who we are as diving beings. Wisdom becomes us when we allow our minds and emotions to live with an inner peace. We know the real meaning of our lessons because everything is the meaning we give it. It no longer is a scary thought. It is what allows us to experience this peace no matter what’s happening in life moment by moment.

sanctuaryofstillness.org

Bridge to Peace

by Carol Anne Munro -

The realms of all possibilities are within what Lynne McTaggart calls "the field." When we are in the lower vibration of fear, worry, anxiety, horror, terror, sadness, depression, grief, anger, resentment, hate, impatience, etc., we attract and radiate it in the field for ourself and others. We are then the bridge to the lower vibrations.

In the same respect, as a bridge to extreme high vibrations of kindness, love, excitement, respect, openness, fairness, uprighteousness, courage, gentleness, our actions lead us to fixing, helping, controlling others and environment, fanaticism, judgment, criticism, comparison, inequality, etc.

We swing from one to the other depending on our reaction to the situation determining the degree of our pain or pleasure. In pain we like to dramatize the negative. In the extremes of pleasure, we like to dramatize the magic, good fortune, luck. We can rest assured we will have an equal down for every up and up for every down – just like the pendulum going back and forth until it comes to the centre of its path where peace, love, joy, abundance, contentment and wellness reside.

When we become the observer of the pendulum of our life, we can see where we go too far up or down and choose to come into stillness within our heart where creativity, unconditional love, peace, compassion, detachment, appreciation/gratitude, and wellness reside.

For example, if self-hatred is showing up in others around us as self-mutilation, self-deprivation, over indulgence, addictions, then we can know by our reaction and feeling in our body whether we have an emotional charge – the same thing within us – thus, an opportunity to neutralize our emotional charge.

In neutralizing the emotional charge within us, we heal our self and radiate peace to the field. From the place of patient peaceful loving neutrality, we become “the bridge” for others, in their own time, to choose life-giving ways. As “the bridge,” appreciate the flow of small miracles, in alignment with the divine within, ever increasing.

majestictransformation.com
belovedworld.org

Aligning with Essence

by Gina Lake -

When we are in our body and senses and not in our head, we experience a sense of aliveness that is felt as a subtle energetic vibration, or tingling, and a sense of being alive, illumined, and aware. These sensations are how who we really are is experienced by the body-mind. That aliveness is the felt-sense of who we really are and what we experience when we are in the Now. When we are aligned with who we really are and not identified with the ego, we feel that aliveness, Presence, energetically, and it's very pleasurable.

The fact that who we really are, Essence, can be felt energetically is very handy because it makes identifying when we are aligned with Essence and when we aren't easier. That sense of aliveness can also help us realign with Essence when we are identified with the ego. If you find yourself contracted and suffering, you can search for the sense of aliveness, which is always present, and focus on it. No matter how faint the experience of aliveness is, it will increase as you pay attention to it. Focusing on aliveness is a way of accessing Essence in every moment.

The more you pay attention to the aliveness, the more obvious it becomes. It can become very strong, and when it does, it acts like an anchor, grounding us in the Now and helping us stay there. The sense of aliveness can drown out the ego's mind-chatter, relegating it to the background. If we focus on the aliveness often enough as we go about our day, it will become the foreground, and the mind-chatter will fall into the background.

When we are grounded in aliveness, we experience a deep calm and peacefulness, which allows us to move through our day with equanimity. That peacefulness is unflappable, unless our emotional body gets triggered by a belief or by someone else's belief we've identified with. When that happens, the aliveness is still present and can bring us back into the Now if we give our attention to it instead of to the thoughts and feelings that were triggered.

Not buying into our thoughts and feelings doesn't make us less human, as some might think. It's just a different way of being in the world, although not the most common one. Being aligned with aliveness instead of our thoughts and feelings actually makes us more effective and functional—and also more kind—than being identified with our thoughts and feelings.

Being aligned with Essence instead of the egoic mind is the next step in humanity's evolution. Eventually we will all awaken out of the egoic mind and live from Essence. Emotions will still exist in potential, but they won't run roughshod over the body-mind. Equanimity, acceptance, and love will be the most common state instead of discontentment, striving, contraction, and fear. Certain individuals are heralding this shift in consciousness and helping to bring it about. The potential to live from Essence exists in everyone, but only some people will make that a priority. The more people who do, the easier it will be for the rest of humanity to make that shift in consciousness.

You are probably motivated to make the shift to living from Essence. Paying attention to the feeling of aliveness is one of the most useful tools for awakening. Of course, the egoic self isn't the one who chooses to do that. What chooses to give attention to the aliveness is Essence, as it awakens you. The ego will fight that choice all the way. Essence is the awareness of the whole drama between the ego and the you that is awakening.

radicalhappiness.com

Wishes Do Come True!

by Wendy Robbins -

Take back your power by taking control of your thoughts.

Stop for a moment and think about your thoughts. They’re non-stop, aren’t they? I’m sure you sometimes wish you could slow them down or turn them off—but you simply cannot. They come and go as they please, wreak havoc as they see fit and, on a good day, can elevate your mood and make you feel like dancing. How many do you think you have in a day? A hundred? A thousand? Nope. Try 60,000.

Sixty-thousand thoughts in a 24-hour period. Wow!!

I just read that statistic and that’s what I said—WOW! I got to thinking: what is swimming around inside my head 60,000 times a day?

More important, how many are relevant, productive and important thoughts—and how many are mindless chatter? How many complaints, rants and trivial issues do I allow to clutter my mind tens of thousands of times a day? I don’t know for sure, but I don’t think I want to either. My guess is you are in the same boat.

Consider your thoughts—how many times a day do thoughts and ideas cross your mind that can birth planets, create life, change someone’s life, heal someone, inspire another or motivate you and others?

Thoughts are like a seed you plant—the question is, are you planting a weed, your favorite fragrant flower or nutritious food? Thoughts are a subconscious magnet—they are the greatest source of attraction, seduction and enrollment.

Picture a fabulous genie in your mind, ready and willing to fulfill your every desire, saying “as you wish” to every thought you have. It’s exciting—and it’s also scary. Because sometimes you have scary thoughts. You have unhealthy, negative, depressing and self-destructive thoughts. The genie in your head doesn’t know the difference, it’s trained to grant your every wish, your every desire, whether it’s healthy or harmful.

Your subconscious simply says, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” to your every thought.

The universe answers back, “I’ll have what she’s having.” Soon you give birth to your thoughts. You are about to be laid off from work. You lost your best client. You broke up with someone. You are about to enter into foreclosure. You gained that ten pounds back. You produce all sorts of thoughts without even remembering what you were paying attention to in the first place.

I’ve read that computers can now “read” minds by scanning brain activity and reproducing it as video footage—as moving images of what people are seeing or remembering. You need to be your own computer, always monitoring what you are seeing or remembering. Change the channel if you aren’t entertained.

When you say “I will be—I am committed to being—financially free,” the powerful genie in your head responds, “as you wish.”

Employing that logic, consider what would happen if you said, “I’m horrible with money. I never have any, and I’m always struggling.” The same genie hears that and says, “As you wish.”

Wait, what?? I didn’t wish for that, what’s wrong with my genie?? Nothing. She’s just fine, she’s doing her job to collect her paycheck while you cry about not having any money. You asked for it, you got it.

What happens next? You assume the victim role. You blame everyone but yourself. You judge the person, or persons, that you fault for your misfortune. You point your finger at circumstances. Yes, that’s it! Bad luck and unfortunate circumstances—or “circus-stances”—put you in this position. No sweetheart, they didn’t. You put you in this position.

Accept responsibility now.

The beauty of accepting responsibility is that you are also accepting the power to change your life, yourself and your circumstances. Why would you want to give that power to anyone else? You have spent a lifetime becoming your own person—now be that person!

healyourlife.com

Intentions and Focus

by Harold W. Becker -

There is magnificent beauty all around us when we choose to observe life through love. There is also amazing wisdom right within us when we are patient and listen to our heart. These sublime qualities become a spontaneous part of our experience as we expand our awareness and go beyond our immediate reactions, preconceived expectations and limited notions. Some may call such a life of innate joy an unattainable heaven, where others realize it to be a natural way of living.

What we presently perceive as our reality, individually and collectively, is in fact a very limited perspective of a much grander adventure.

The intricacy and magnitude of our combined thoughts, feelings, hopes, dreams and desires is astounding. Our ability to imagine potentials, coupled with our capacity to manifest these ideas and make them tangible experiences is nothing short of miraculous. The evidence is obvious in the intense diversity we find ourselves experiencing right now on our planet.

With this diversity comes incredible opportunity. Never before have we realized our creative capacity and simultaneously, the enormous responsibility held within each of our creations. We are rapidly becoming aware of our active participation in a shared reality that reaches far beyond us individually, our immediate family, friends or local community.

The ideas we presently entertain in our own consciousness are the seeds of a future yet to be made, that literally affects the whole. What we are currently conceiving and imagining will eventually interact with others, either enhance or destroy our expressions, and ultimately influence our collective lives.

Whether we experience life as a form of heaven or something less than that is simply a matter of where we place our attention. If we continue to focus on things that are limited, destructive, based in lack or held in the past, we are destined to create more of the same. Yet, if we are bold and steadfast, we are able to recognize the splendor held within each moment.

We understand the nature of our personal creative abilities through our thoughts and feelings and we willingly intend and experience outcomes that benefit all.

These are not idle speculations, an ignoring of present circumstances or intentions of false hopes. Quite the contrary, this is acknowledging and knowing that we are powerful beyond our wildest imagination and that we do in fact, have an effect on what happens next. Love is the key that unlocks our greatest possibilities. It is the presence of love that becomes increasingly obvious as we take time to notice it and integrate it into every experience. This is heaven and this is the potential that awaits you.

thelovefoundation.com

Role of Beliefs in our Lives

by MariAngela Landau -

Spiritual Adulthood:

Question: You previously shared that it’s important, as part of our emergence from spiritual adolescence to spiritual adulthood, to separate limiting historical beliefs from enlivening truth. How do you feel concepts or information become beliefs?

Answer: We are exposed to data in the form of information and ideas. We take in the information and concepts, digest and assimilate them and then adopt the data as fact. These facts become beliefs. And more often than not, our beliefs take up residence within us as truth. Our truths become convictions that we defend and protect as irrefutable dogma.

It is therefore vital, as we continue our journey toward spiritual adulthood, that we detach from the beliefs we’ve stockpiled, particularly those that come from external source authority. As we instead assess what resonates as the living truth within us, we become more inclined to rely on our own inner promptings. And as we rely more and more on our own inner promptings, a snowball effect commences. The more we rely on our inner promptings, the easier it becomes to evaluate whether what we see, hear or read genuinely resonates as the living truth.

The more our ability to recognize and reclaim truths increases, the more relieved and satisfied we feel.

The more relieved and satisfied we feel, the more fulfilled and grateful we become. The more fulfilled and grateful we become, the safer we feel. When we experience self-reliance, assessing and utilizing truth, when we have understanding and knowledge, we feel safe, and when we feel safe, there isn’t much room for fear. If we ignore these vital steps, we risk continuing to evaluate what we see, hear or read from our historical lens, and will therefore likely continue to defend the prisons we are in.

Many of us become anxious and rigid in the face of change and therefore opt for their comfort zones of holding onto familiar beliefs. Familiar beliefs reinforce the repetition of patterns, and this paradigm shift insists that we accept that we cannot afford to remain stuck in repetitious patterns.

In addition, at this point in this evolutionary cycle, we are much more aware of our ability to create our own reality. That which we experience as our reality is based on our beliefs. Indeed, our beliefs define our reality. Furthermore, our beliefs influence our choices and our participation in life. And many of our beliefs often dampen our deepest desires and distort the living truth that vibrates in our core.

All paradigm shifts ask participants to separate limiting historical beliefs from the living truth and to overthrow previous assumptions that don’t contribute to evolution.

All paradigm shifts are, in fact, evidence that assumptions can be overthrown. History verifies that what once seemed impossible not only found its way into the mainstream, but also acquired impeccable credentials along the way. Furthermore, history substantiates that truths once considered heretical can now withstand not only questioning and revision but also recognition and acceptance.

The bottom line reason we incarnated at this time as participants in this paradigm shift is to graduate from spiritual adolescence to spiritual adulthood. We are renegades and trailblazers, and as such, we are encoded to graduate spiritually. This encoding predates all emotional, societal, psycho-spiritual and religious grids. So, we’re encoded to explore uncommon knowledge about the mystical aspects of our origins and to re-examine reality as we know it, as well as to overthrow previous beliefs and assumptions that don’t contribute to our highest destiny.

In the deepest part of ourselves, I believe that we long to become heralds of living truth, and that when we allow this, any chains that have bound us dissolve, the knowledge encoded in our beings is activated and we become liberated broadcasters of our cosmic heritage.

thecenterfortruenorth.com