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The Mastery of Gratitude

The Mastery of Gratitude

At this time of year, we are encouraged to count our blessings and to be grateful. Even in 2020, this “unprecedented year”, people are expressing gratitude for the things that are going well in their lives. Some people are expressing gratitude for family, friends, nature, abundance, and good fortune. Others are expressing gratitude for frontline workers in the medical fields and distribution chains, emergency first responders, food banks and their volunteers and contributors, and others who are making a difference in their daily lives.

Spirit urges us to continue to review all of the positive aspects in our lives. However, we are reminded that it isn’t that difficult to be grateful for these things. It is harder, and perhaps more rewarding, to be truly grateful for the situations in our lives that we don’t find to be particularly pleasant. Being grateful for when a situation pushes our buttons is the sign of someone mastering their experience. This is what we are calling the Mastery of Gratitude.

If we are only grateful for what is going well in our lives, then we are missing out on the gratitude that comes from knowing what is still dense inside of us and recognizing that it needs to be healed. Until we understand what needs to be healed, we will founder. Once we have the awareness that something makes us mad, frustrated, sad or hateful, then we can seek guidance in order to heal the discordant emotions that we still feel. We may be guided to look at the situation from a different perspective or from a larger point of view. We may be guided to look at our belief system or old patterns of behavior which are contributing to the discordant emotions. Then, we ask to clear / heal the issues. When we do this, the situation no longer triggers the negative response or at least, doesn’t trigger as negative of a response. The more we allow for this healing, the less and less we will be triggered.

After she traveled to India for a spiritual journey, according to Wikipedia, Alanis Morrissett and her writing partner, Glen Ballard, wrote the song Thank U. The lyrics might not sound like the things you normally hear at a Thanksgiving Day gratitude circle with your family members. Here is part of the song.

How bout me not blaming you for everything
How bout me enjoying the moment for once
How bout how good it feels to finally forgive you
How bout grieving it all one at a time

 

Thank you India
Thank you terror
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you frailty
Thank you consequence
Thank you thank you silence

 

The moment I let go of it
Was the moment I got more than I could handle
The moment I jumped off of it
Was the moment I touched down

 

How bout no longer being masochistic
How bout remembering your divinity
How bout unabashedly bawling your eyes out
How bout not equating death with stopping

 

Thank you India
Thank you Providence,
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you nothingness
Thank you clarity
Thank you thank you silence…

 

Perhaps we should start a new tradition – expressing gratitude for the potential to heal after recognizing issues that underlie the pain we feel. The more we master gratitude, the more we will master the illusion, and the more we will be the Masters That We Are.

Gratitude to Swmiananda with Pixabay.com for the above image “Namaste”.

Three Deep Breaths for Divine Patience!

Three Deep Breaths for Divine Patience!

Many lightworkers, Ginger and me included, have been encouraging the resonance of Divine Patience in recent months. We have channeled the benefits from a metaphysical standpoint. Ginger’s channeling from earlier this summer is particularly powerful. In her channeling called The Power of Patience she writes, “Patience helps us to stay balanced in chaos, calm in turbulence, hopeful in darkness, and powerful when we feel helpless.”

The truth in that wisdom is enough to coax us into working with the energy of Divine Patience now and always.

If that is not enough to convince us, however, let’s look at the 3D Physical benefits of the power of patience. One recent article addressed this issue better than I can. Thus, I will quote it here. It was first shown as a story on CBS Sunday Morning on Oct 25, 2020. This is the link. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/impatience-why-we-dont-want-to-wait-what-we-can-do-about-it/

As evidenced by pictures of Americans from all across the country, wherever you vote this year, there is a good chance you need to be ready to wait.

 

Waiting at the polls, at the grocery store, and in traffic, Americans are weary of waiting in today’s exasperating times. However, even before the coronavirus pandemic hit, we spent an estimated two years of our entire lives waiting in lines.

 

With COVID-19 cases rising, it is fair to say many people can’t wait for things to get back to “normal.” But as Barry Petersen found out, impatience may be more harmful than some would expect.

 

“You know, there was an interesting study where they gave people the choice to sit alone and get bored, or give themselves painful electric shock. And about 70% of men chose to give themselves painful electric shocks versus sit alone and get bored,” researcher Amit Sood said. “People do not like to be controlled. People do not like uncertainty.”

 

Dr. Amit Sood founded a department that researches impatience at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Before the coronavirus pandemic hit, he spoke to Petersen about why humans “don’t like to get bored.”

 

As he explained, people are “designed to be impatient.”

 

“When little babies are born, they don’t just wait for you to clean their diapers, you know? They cry,” Sood said. “When was the last time you really preferred a slow elevator, or you loved, you know, slow internet connection?”

 

It turns out, how we handle ourselves in these uncertain times comes at a price.

 

Impatience is not simply the opposite of patience, Sood explained. Rather, the absence of patience brings anxiety, illness, injury, loneliness — and even death.

 

“An episode of explosive anger, stress or impatience can increase your risk of heart attack and sudden death by two to eightfold for the next few hours,” he said.

 

Impatience, or a lack of patience, can even have a long-term effect on one’s DNA.

 

“If we were to take your blood sample and measure your… telomeres, which are at the end of chromosomes, the shorter they are, the smaller they are, the older you are. And people who are impatient have shorter telomeres,” Sood said.

 

Stress is another negative emotion related to impatience. To see its effect on the average American, Petersen took the Mayo Clinic stress test, which is designed to simulate the stress of everyday life.

 

The test includes activities such as squeezing a grip, and submerging a hand in ice-cold water for three minutes.

 

Petersen’s results showed dramatically higher blood pressure and changes to the heartbeat.

 

Dr. Michael Joyner, who oversaw his test, explained that Petersen’s “big rise” in blood pressure was tied to being in “imposed situations, where you weren’t in control.”

 

Joyner agreed when Petersen compared it to the feeling of “being on the phone trying to get customer service… where you feel like you’re endlessly waiting.”

 

He said it could “absolutely” have the same effect on one’s body.

 

“People have a very hard time understanding what they do and don’t have control over,” Joyner said.

 

While one might be inclined to feel like the world is out of control, especially at the current time, Dr. Sood said it was important to remember the ability to control oneself.

 

“If you choose to be patient, you are helping yourself. You’re living longer and happier. And you’re helping your loved ones. Being patient is a choice,” he said.

 

Another word Sood said would help us through the pandemic: Resilience.

 

“You do not have any bullets, you do not have any swords. You can’t fist-fight with this virus,” he explained. “You can empower your billions of immune cells to fight with this virus. And when you are resilient, your immune cells are stronger in waging that war.”

 

Boosting resilience could be as easy as a walk in the park — something writer Florence Williams proved to be a literal reality.

 

“The science is pretty clear on this,” Williams explained. “Even after just 15 minutes of walking in a green space or a park, our blood pressure drops a little bit, our heart rate slows down, and even our stress hormones like cortisol lower.”

 

Williams traveled the world writing about how nature can help us master impatience and make us healthier. She said there are “many elements” of nature that people respond to.

 

“It boosts our moods very dramatically,” she added.

 

It is not surprising that the frustration of lockdowns quickly gave way to people flooding the outdoors when they could. People like psychologist Jane West took it to new lengths with the Japanese-invented practice of “forest bathing.”

 

Forest bathing is essentially hiking in slow motion. “The benefit of slowing down is that your life isn’t passing you by,” West said.

 

West, who leads forest bathing sessions in the Colorado Rockies, said being in a forest and its “wonderful smells” allows people to “be lost in this moment as if nothing else exists.”

 

“I know that’s so hard to find these days,” she said. “But it is doable, it’s reachable — and I do this because it gives me those moments.”

 

While the pandemic may not be ending anytime in the near future, Dr. Sood insists we can turn our impatience to good use, if we really want to:

 

“There is tremendous opportunity during this pandemic to rise because of it.”

 

Story produced by Robbyn McFadden. Editor: Carol A. Ross. 

© 2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

There is a lot of good information for us to consider in this article. It might help us view the need to be patient for more than just a metaphysical platitude. It might help us see the value of ourselves as Source at the physical level as well as the emotional, mental and spiritual levels.

May we all embody Divine Patience. May we all just breathe.

Thanks to Peter Fischer at pixbay.com for the image.

Divine Compassion and Divine Power

Divine Compassion and Divine Power

In a February blog entry, entitled Back to Basics, we discussed the resonances that Marsha Hankins channeled in association with the points of the Star of David. They are from top going clockwise: Love, Compassion, Wisdom, Forgiveness, Power and Understanding.

It is not a coincidence that the energy directly across from Love is Forgiveness, or that Compassion is across from Power, or, finally, that Understanding is across from Wisdom. As Marsha reminded us, “we must be unconditional forgiveness before we can be unconditional love.  We must have understanding before we can act with wisdom.  We must have compassion to use our 5th-dimensional power instead of our 3rd-dimensional power.”

We are being encouraged to open up to more self-reflection on the two resonances of Divine Compassion and Divine Power. Ask your Soul what blocks you from holding more Divine Compassion and leading you to more Divine Power.

Here are some questions to ponder! As always, these are just ideas to help you start a dialog with your Soul / Source that you are.

  • Do we equate our being compassionate with others needing to be rescued?
  • Do we believe that we will become a victim if we show compassion?
  • Do we have a belief that 3D Power is the only power that is real?
  • Do we have the belief that compassion can only be given to the point of forgoing our power?
  • Do we believe that compassion and power are opposites on the spectrum instead of just the resonances across from each other on the Star of David?
  • Are compassion and power mutually exclusive?
  • Do we believe that we give our power away when we are compassionate?
  • Do we believe that we lose our ability to be compassionate when we stand in our power?
  • Are there other questions that your soul is bringing to your attention?

Karpman Drama Triangle

We have also discussed the need to clear or heal the drama portrayed in the Karpman Drama Triangle. In this theory, humans display destructive behaviors when they are stressed and allow drama to affect their actions and reactions. A human might display the characteristics of being a victim, a persecutor or bully, and a rescuer in a given situation. A human might also assign those characteristics to other people’s reactions to certain situations. None of these three reactions are healthy. These reactions deny that we and others are the creators of our experiences and that we are Source.

We are being encouraged to work with the energies of Divine Compassion and Divine Power to help pull us out of the habit of believing we or others are victims, persecutors or rescuers.

Work with the energies of Divine Compassion and Divine Power to remember who you truly are and to be willing to no longer alternate between the corners of the drama triangle.

 

 

The Courage of Responsibility

The Courage of Responsibility

While I was running errands the other day, I needed to use the facilities in a grocery store at which I infrequently shop. Their restroom is through the employee breakroom. As I was washing my hands, I read the decal that was on the mirror which was probably there to remind the employees about safety issues. The decal said, “You are looking at the person most responsible for your safety.” Like all signs, the employees probably don’t even notice it any more.

As with most motivational signs, the saying could be used for almost any situation or quality. We are most responsible for our safety, our health, our wisdom, our power, our love, etc. Like the employees, I probably get complacent about the signs around me. I probably need to remember the wisdom of knowing my responsibility now more than ever. Spirit is reminding me that I am the creator of my reality and I am being encouraged to tap into the courage of my responsibility, too!

It is very easy in our meditation chairs to know and quote the words that we are responsible for our own creations. It is sometimes harder to believe it when all our good intentions do not seem to be creating the desired result, or even 90% of the desired result, that we believe our actions should attract. When we look out to the world, we may see, not just slightly less desirable results, but a mess or even a disaster as viewed from the lens of our third dimensional world.

Spirit encourages us to look at the outer world through the lens of the inner world. Look at the outer world with the courage to know and believe that all of our creations are our responsibility without the judgment that the word responsibility conjures in the third dimensional sense. We can ask to have the courage to forgo judgment or blame for what we have created. We can have the courage to persevere in the face of moments of hopelessness. We can breathe in courage and fill with the strength that comes with that. Then we can ask for the action step that is next on our path and ask for the courage to take that action step, no matter if it feels like that action step is just more of the same.

The action step may be filling with courage, strength and perseverance every three hours for 24 hours to counteract the fear that comes to us as we go through the day. If we try doing this intentionally for a week, maybe that will help to clear the fear of asking for and taking the next action step. Remember that slow and steady progress is progress. Slow and steady can win the race. Slow and steady helps to integrate the higher frequency energies in order to BE the higher frequency energies in a sustainable way.

Just like the advice in the employees’ restroom, none of the ideas in this blog entry are new. Just because an idea feels like a cliché doesn’t mean it isn’t valid. The ideas behind the clichés work. It is our intention that works. It is our courage and perseverance to remind ourselves that we are the creators that works. Know your courage. Bask in your responsibility. Know yourself as Source.

Out of the Mouths of Babes, Comes Wisdom

Out of the Mouths of Babes, Comes Wisdom

Tanitoluwa Adewumi is a nine year old who aspires to become the youngest Chess Grandmaster. If he manages to become a Grandmaster by the age of 12 years and 7 months, he will overtake the record spot from Sergey Karjakin.

I recently read Tani’s book called My Name is Tani and I believe in Miracles, written with Craig Borlase. In the book, Tani describes his family’s move to the United States from Nigeria and the miracles that aided the move. He writes about his start in the world of chess. Tani has some great chess coaches in the New York Public School district. One of his coaches, Coach Russ, told him, “You only lose if you don’t learn from a defeat.”

Tani seems to have taken this advice and integrated it as his life philosophy which makes it his reality. Yes, Tani practices chess in just about every free moment of his day. In addition, his belief and ability to learn from past experiences without dwelling on them and even being willing to sacrifice a piece for the greater goal of winning the match is inspiring.

He believes, “If you have the right way of thinking, you never really lose. You only ever win. Don’t quit. Stay in the game. If you are still in the game, you have a chance at winning.”

What do you need to reframe in your life to see it as an experience, even a win, instead of a defeat? You can do it. You can do it because you are persevering and staying in the game.

Thanks to Steve Buissinne for the image from Pixabay.com

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