You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘gratitude’ tag.
Many now, with the shaky economy, are beginning to contract and withhold. With all the news about the financial instability in our banks, the stock market etc. fear rises its ominous head and we instinctively contract. In truth, the Universe is the source of unlimited supply, and our inner Light, the light of oneness that we are, is inseparable from that supply. But when we succumb to fear and buy into lack, this Light begins to diminish cutting off that support.
Fear begins with a thought; the IRS tells us we have a big tax bill due, for example, and our conditioned and limiting beliefs about money are triggered. It is these thoughts about money and what we are telling ourselves about our situation that becomes our reality e.g. that there is not enough to go around, and I must be careful of losing the little that I have; we create a scarcity mindset, a poverty consciousness. And this us what we will manifest.
But there is another way! Rather than contract in the face of what appears to be limited resources, what if you were to expand? What if you embraced Flow? Flow is an ever-present current of love, grace and light from Source that supports us and furnishes our needs no matter what the circumstances. Flow is simply divine intelligence fulfilling its evolutionary imperative to take care of its own! It will move through your life by surrendering to it and by having faith and trust that it will. Then our mantra becomes: The Universe is the source of unlimited supply, and I am not, nor have I ever been separate from that Flow.
We can most easily make contact with this Flow at the spiritual or etheric heart in the center of our chest. Love lives here, of course, and Flow is really just love in action! So when you are feeling blocked and your bank account is beginning to trigger fear, return to your heart. The technology needed here is 2G, but don’t think old cellular network here! This 2G runs on different current, for it is a mystical network, and its power radiates from the heart.
It is the two Gs of Generosity and Gratitude of which I speak, which open your heart, and connect you directly to to the abundance that the Universe is eager to supply. How does your heart feel when you give to someone in need? Notice the radiating warmth there, and the fullness of being. Generosity opens the heart. In the East, it is known as the art of selfless giving, or Karma Yoga. When we give generously, and especially without thought of reward, divine intelligence notices! The beneficence we create through our selfless act returns to us because we are in a divine realm now where love is the operating system and where out-go creates in-Flow.
Gratitude, too, opens the heart. Gratitude bypasses the negative mind taking us directly to the higher vibrational heart, where Flow resides. Even in tough times, if you can find gratitude for what you do have you open the door to the abundance that Flow provides.
Practice gratitude daily, raise your vibration, and step into an energetic field that will create a buffer of light against the vicissitudes of the third dimensional world. Your own inner luminescence will become an attractor for abundance and Flow to move through your life.
This economy will always have its ups and downs, but you do not need to become a statistic. Practice your two Gs! Surrender your fears, open your heart and welcome Flow.
Recently, a mentoring session began with the young man lamenting about his current state of affairs. He was not happy about his job; he was luckless in his search for a significant other; his creativity felt blocked; compared to his peers’ accomplishments in life he was feeling inferior. Overall, he was in a funk.
I explained why he was feeling down. With all of his worry and limiting thoughts he was buying into “lack” and “loss”and his light level was dropping. So rather than see his life as half empty I suggested he begin to see it as half full. I suggested he come back into the fullness his heart.
I shared with him a shortcut: gratitude opens the heart! “What are you grateful for?”, I asked. He stopped and thought for a moment. Still, feeling blocked from seeing ways his life was actually working in his favor, I reminded him that he is employed and able to afford a roof over his head, and to buy food to eat, and even to enjoy some luxuries. So many in this world struggle to meet their basic needs. “Can you appreciate how much you actually do have?,” I asked.
His energy began to shift and he was able to share with me many things that he can be grateful for. He was finding his way back into his heart and into the fullness of love and life we discover there.
Let us each not ever settle for a “down” state and a loss of light. States of mind, whether positive or negative, are transitory and not who we are as eternal timeless Presence itself. We can always make the choice to shift our reality and access our inner light and power, and gratitude will do it every time!
And especially on this auspicious day, 12/12/2022, as a portal opens into the invisible realms, culminating in the magic of the winter solstice, grace is especially palpable and welcoming.
Her blessings of transcendent effulgent light uplift us, touching and opening our hearts, inviting us to be in gratitude, to be in love.
Take a moment, allow the blessings, open your heart. What are you grateful for?
As we approach our winter solstice this year, and as the dark turns to light, let us consciously tune into the subtle energies and the descent of Grace that naturally bless us. We can sense it in meditation, in nature, or simply in quiet times if we make space for it. Gently breath into your crown chakra at the top of your head and open to the golden effulgent light that is specially showered upon us this time of year. Allow it to fill you up, washing away any shadow or negativity. Feel how it uplifts you and connects you to your heart.
The spiritual heart at the center of our chest is a doorway into an ascended state of being. Its overarching vibration is of love; yes, romantic love lives here, but also so many subtler vibrations that uplift us and invite us to connect with others. For example, the spiritual heart shows us the way to acceptance and compassion. Allow your attention to rest there at the center of your chest and open to these ascended states of mind. Feel any resistance in your heart melt as you are uplifted and brought nearer to your essential divine nature. Breathe deeply into this wellspring of love and light.
Forgiveness, generosity, gratitude and humility also emanate from the spiritual heart. On the cusp of a new year, who in your life is awaiting your forgiveness? Can you let go of the pain and resentment and open your heart to them once again? Allow Grace to support you as you surrender your withholdings and heal the broken heart. Begin the coming year anew with a unification so that you both may be cleansed and loved once again.
In your giving and receiving this time of year (and always) allow Grace and the open heart to guide you. Can you give generously and selflessly, especially to those in need? And can you accept what is given to you with humility and gratitude? Can you be thankful not only for any gifts, but for the beauty of felt connection and the fullness of heart that comes with that?
Joy, too, lives in the heart. Let this sacred and sweet time of year bring you joy. Choose how you spend your time mindfully. Will you be uplifted by your choices or will they feel like a burden, weighing you down emotionally and physically. Use your free will to choose to raise your vibration through your choices moment by moment. Grace will surely meet you there, and then some.
Lastly, take your light and your joy with you into the new year. This fragmented world desperately needs the healing that comes with the open heart. Together may we seed the world with a higher unifying vibration carried on the wings of love.
In this world a message we get all the time is be positive, stay positive, or focus on the positive etc. Well of course! Makes sense. Foolish would it be to focus on the negative, although the ego will fall into this trap from time to time and, unfortunately, even get lost in it. We have two choices then, or so it seems. We can go negative or we can go positive. But what happens, eventually? Experience shows us that life is transitory and we won’t remain on the positive side of life forever; at some point negativity will creep in and even take over! And then the tide will once again turn and fate will hand us a positive experience, which, if the negative experience was particularly painful, we will cling to for dear life! So we will inevitably flip from one side to the other in an endless cycle of positive and negative, happiness and unhappiness, pleasure and pain. Is this what life is about – always grasping for the positive and pushing away the negative, the wheel of karma endlessly turning? What can we do? Is there another way?
The Middle Way, or the path between the opposites of the world is what the Buddha teaches. It reconciles the tension inherent in polarity and becomes the path of no resistance. It’s the one that gets my vote! This choice transcends positive and negative and the dual nature of the limited mind, and new more stable states of being become our default in the world – acceptance, compassion, equality, faith, forgiveness, generosity, gratitude, humility, joy, selflessness, tolerance, and trust, among others, for example. Feel into them for a moment. Do you notice how your attention comes to rest at the level of the chest at the heart chakra? These states of being are heart states and have the unique qualities of transcendence and eternality: our capacity for compassion, generosity, or joy, for instance, is unlimited! It is these heart states that unify the opposites of the world, bringing about inner peace and, yes, on-going happiness. It is through making the choice to choose the heart, rather than simply the positive, that puts the brakes on the wheel of karma and our identity with the endless ups and downs of life.
When we choose the heart we identify with our true, essential nature as timeless beings. Negative and positive experiences will always occur in a world of form that is dualistic by nature, but we will no longer find our identity in them. Instead, life’s experiences will pass through us, through the still center of awareness that we know ourselves to be. Without the extreme teeter-tottering of emotions creating instability and fear in our lives, life smooths out greatly. We embody more and more transcendental light and shine that light out into the world. Our lives change. We begin to draw to us all that we need for our well-being and happiness.
Too good to be true? What I’m describing here is our birthright to live happy and content lives beyond the limitations of egoic consciousness. When we choose the path between the opposites of the world we surrender the denser aspects of ego that are driven by individual will. We come to know and to trust in Divine Will to guide our lives, which, in truth, is all there ever is… if we could only get out of the way! Through processing and practice we learn to surrender our limited egoic consciousness for what may yet be unknown, but for what is always absolute truth.
Do you feel ready to take on this inner work? If so, allow me to be your guide. I promise you a gentle ride through the roller coaster of egoic life. And I promise, at its end, the ride will even out and you will feel not only relief, but more and more moments of absolute joy! Please click the Spiritual Guidance page at the top of this blog, schedule a session, and let’s go!
Photo credit: Penelope Dullaghan
If you could go to a very beautiful place where you find love, compassion, forgiveness and generosity, wouldn’t you go? I know, you’re thinking, “Fat chance, I can’t afford a plane ticket to some pricey island sanctuary in the Bahamas!” But the truth is this place I’m speaking about is closer than that, even closer than a heartbeat! In fact, it is your heart (though, not the physical heart, mind you!)
This place, located right in your body about three inches below the notch in your collarbone, is known as the heart chakra. It is our spiritual heart. Love, compassion, forgiveness and generosity are states that emanate from this place in our energy body. You can test this out for yourself. The next time you can feel and name the of vibration of love, compassion, forgiveness or generosity, bring your attention to your heart chakra and see what you feel. Do you notice a sensation of radiating warmth and expansiveness there? Do you notice how you feel safe and secure and connected to something greater than your small and limited self.
When our awareness rests in the heart chakra we are outside of the right/wrong and good/bad polarities of the limited and judging mind. Through careful cultivation of our consciousness we can come to rest permanently here in the beauty and expansiveness of the open heart, where all of these ascended states are available to us… as well as many more! Wouldn’t it also be nice to live in faith and flow, and trust and harmony? How about balance and equanimity? And let’s not forget JOY!
When the heart chakra is open and fully enlivened, life flows through us in a beautiful way, and we feel balanced and serene, and as you go through your day, your heart leads the way!
The magic is that there is a very simple easy way to access this open heart daily. It is through the practice of gratitude. Gratitude is a doorway into the heart.
More than a perfunctory “thank you”, the gratitude I’m speaking about arises from a deeper place within. Reflect from time to time on the everyday blessings you so readily take for granted. When you notice yourself mired in thoughts about everything that’s not working in your life, or if you are feeling in some way deprived …stop! Remind yourself of all that you do have, like the love of a child or a partner, or a pet. Or the simple satisfaction of having food to nourish you when you are hungry; there are so many that do without…
By feeling and nurturing this gratefulness in our lives we bypass the polarized nature of the lower mind and our awareness rises up into the heart. The heart chakra begins to open like a beautiful lotus flower.
Count your blessings. Live in gratitude. Your heart will sing! And you will find love, compassion, trust and faith, and more! And this is what you will attract. No vacation in the Bahamas required; your heart is your sanctuary. Wherever you go!
Brother David Steindl-Rast has created a beautiful video about gratefulness. Find a quiet moment, take some deep relaxing breathes, and receive its blessing…
<p>Video from <a href=”http://www.karmatube.org”>KarmaTube</a></p>
embracingOneness 