“One truth you must consider. You are only as expansive, successful, joyous, peaceful and free as you truly love and accept yourself.”
~ Joseph
I want to suggest that you consider the possibility that it’s time you take real charge of your life. It’s time to more fully understand who you are, what you want, and how you are getting in your own way.
Most of who you are is learned and much of it has been helpful in moving you to where you are now. However, big chunks of it have been holding you back, slowing your progress or even road-blocking what you feel deep inside is right for you.
If you took the time to count your blessing each day you would be surprised by how many positive, wonderful moments there are. I recently began an experiment in which I looked for blessing coming my way.
This experiment came from an e-book called E Squared by Pam Grout (available on Amazon). I suggest you join me in this experiment. There are also eight additional experiments to help you prove that your thoughts create your reality.
Also, over the last few months, I have been slowly enjoying a book titled, The Gentle Art Of Blessing by Pierre Pradervand. I’m using these ideas as a guide for exploring the practice of blessing others and myself.
When you bless others you can imagine sending them light, love, joy, peace, healing and flow. Everyone everywhere would appreciate these kind gestures of thoughtful intention. These outward actions are not in the context of religion but more about assisting others to more fully express who they are.
I have been drawn to the idea of blessings with the belief that they can make a difference in the world. Making a positive difference seems more important than ever. Does it to you also?
I continue to notice in myself - and in almost every other human being - that self-doubt is a ongoing challenge that just doesn’t go away one day. Instantly erasing it sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?
Instantly, maybe not - however there are ways to shrink self-doubt that can be hugely successful rather quickly. I will share these with you shortly but first I want to share 5 ways self-doubt is fueled:
1. Looking to others for self-approval – This never works but it seems so important when you doubt yourself. There could never be enough approval from others to dissolve the lack of approval inside. Move past this strategy. It only creates more self-doubt.
2. Trying to satisfy the ego-mind’s need for reassurance -The ego-mind is never satisfied. This mind can have everything it wants but it will go searching for even more. The ego is fueled by fear. Notice the ego’s voice and don’t let it run your life.
3. Ignoring your intuitive/soul’s sense of what is right for you - This is a frequent mistake made because the rationalizing mind too often pushes the inner voice aside. Ignoring the quiet wisdom inside fills you full of doubt.
I invite you to join me and explore a spiritual practice of blessing.
The following is the blessing I will share throughout this Summer for the benefit of all our brothers and sisters on the planet:
I call upon the brightest light within me and beyond to bless all my human family.
I send blessings from the heart of unconditional love, compassion, kindness and caring to everyone.
I send blessings of awareness, consciousness, insight, inspiration, awakening and the realization of are oneness.
I send blessings of peace, inner peace, and world peace. It is time to find peace together.
I send blessings of joy, happiness, laughter and much enjoyment of life. Feel the joy flowing through these blessings to you.
I send blessings of healing, health and well-being to all. Within we have all we need to heal ourselves and each other.
I send blessings of flow, abundance, prosperity, money, wealth, and financial freedom. We all deserve this wonderful flow.
I send blessings of freedom, free to be, free of oppression, free of the need to be in control and be right, and free of all limits.
I also bless myself with all these blessing and encourage you to do the same.
Together our blessing will send transforming waves across the planet for the good of all.
Let the Blessings flow,
Joseph
First a quick summary: You may have noticed that I often revisit ideas. I do that for several reasons:
1. I have discovered that my own journey towards self-realization benefits from looking at ideas and concepts from variety of perspectives. I suspect that is true for you.
2. Reminders seem very helpful in these times filled with such distractions. I am curious what you need to be reminded about as you move towards your highest expression? Please leave comments below.
3. I find that every time I read something I resonate with, I expand in my awareness; I open to a greater understanding. At this blog I explore timely issues for each of us on a path of awakening. What kinds of ideas resonate with you? Comments welcomed.
I hope you find this summary helpful and a good-lead-in to one of my favorite themes – Being and Doing.
Over the last few months I have been sharing ideas with you that I find words inadequate in expressing. This writing challenge is tied to ongoing seismic shifting of my inner sense of self and the world.
At this point in my life I’ve committed to leaving a lifetime of programming behind. Now I am on a personal journey of deepening awareness, expanding compassion and realizing the highest levels of potential and expression.
Recently I’ve had a number of insights that have been very helpful. My hope is you can join me in exploring these higher levels of knowing.
My first insight is why joy matters.
On the other side of what seems to be reality is a much more profound truth. That truth is that heaven waits for you now. Not the kind of biblical heaven imagined by the inventors of the different religions. This heaven is within.
The great promise of most religion is that you will have a better life in the hereafter. The Truth never lingers in the possibilities of tomorrow. It can only reside in the present moment. Now is the only place where the seeds of human possibilities bloom.
Heaven is not a romp through the tulips but a song that sings itself as your life. You are the creator of each moment whether it’s heaven, hell or dull disconnect from the vibrancy of life.
Characteristics of the true heaven within you include:
A loving heart so vast and unconditional that all is included
It’s time to get up and move. Spring has sprung and your body is ready to re-engage with the natural world.
I love to walk. There are many reasons for that. Let me share with you why walking is so important. My hope is that you will join me and make walking part of your daily life.
There are many benefits from walking. Walking is not only good for the body but also super good for the mind, heart and spirit:
After a weekend of deep conversations, moments of bright light and insight and a re-examination of ideas and beliefs, I feel renewed. I also feel very quiet and peaceful.
I am now back at home but life seems altered. I’m not sure how or what it all means but that is all right. I am living in the moment with appreciation for all that is as it is.
My seeing and understanding has expanded. That’s exciting.
I thought I must have some deeply profound things to share.
Each day is a new day. This moment is totally fresh if you don’t bring thoughts from the past or worries about tomorrow to clog it all up. In this moment you can create whatever experience you want.
You don’t have to be haunted by a past relationship, or something you felt you should have done better. This moment is free to be fully experienced as wonderful moment in your life.
Too often you can show up with a trail of regrets and disappoints and fill what could be amazing with what wasn’t. Have you ever done that? It doesn’t have to be that way.
You can let all that isn’t happening go. You can release the past hurts and regrets. If you don’t, you carry them with you. Then you miss out on what good things are happening because you are too busy with what went wrong.
Living moment by moment makes if possible to enjoy the gift of the present. The present is truly where:
Warning: Reading this can throw a wrench into how you view yourself and the world.
I was standing around a fire with some friends as our weekly morning men’s group was coming to an end. We were offering intentions to the fire as is the tradition in the world of sacred fires. Fires of this nature are wonderful for releasing the past, and seeding intentions for the future.
I joined in. I wish for safety and success for friends as they headed off to lead a shamanic journey to sacred sites in Mexico. I also offered intentions for the well-being of all on the planet and as I always do, for peace in the world. When it came to personal intentions, I drew a blank and didn’t think much of it.
As I was driving home this phrase came to me with resonating clarity, “No Me.”
How can you get out of your own way and remove the inner barriers to explore all that is possible?
What would you life be like if you allowed the following truths about you to become fully realized?
You are:
Pure awareness
A bright light
Unconditional, endless love
Infinite and eternal
Pure presence
In unity with all of life
A soul having a human experience
Stillness and peace
Bliss waiting to be experienced
Joy and happiness
Grace waiting to be expressed
One with the Source
Free to be anything you want
One with beauty of nature
The expanding universe
Compassion for all
A difference maker
Acceptance and appreciation
How do you realize these true qualities of your nature as a human being?
Sit is stillness and be guided.
Recently after a peaceful and contemplative day I was doing Tai Chi when an extraordinary thing happened. I was extending my arms outwards as if to expand myself into oneness with the Universe and I spontaneously went into an altered state.
This experience of altering my state has happened in the past - compliments of my inner practices. The difference is this state stayed. Usually these experiences last for at most a few hours. This expanded viewpoint of oneness remained through the night and is still present as I write this.
In the past few years or maybe it has been all my life, my soul has been trying to keep me heading in the right direction. You know us humans we are always going off course following some tangent of desire or tripping ourselves up with our thoughts.
The voice of the soul is a quiet one. It whispers wisdom for me to listen to or not. It can be in the form of an intuition, an inner guide, a flash of insight or inspiration or the knowing messages from an open heart.
How does your soul communicate with you? Do you listen?
If you enjoy a good walk, you will enjoy a walking meditation. Walking meditation is a way to be up and moving and yet allows you to enter into a place of stillness and inner peace.
You can walk through a neighborhood, a park, a schoolyard (off hours), on a trail, on a circular path, on the way to and from work, or around your block. Walking in this matter brings you more fully present to the areas you travel through. You may even notice beauty and points of interest you missed before.
Walking meditation quiets your mind, helps release tension in your body and encourages you to tune in and hear the wisdom within. After a meditative walk you are likely to have a more peaceful mind, a relaxed body and an intuitive sense of what is right for you.
Here is my favorite prescription for the ultimate in walking meditation experience:
I lost my father on Monday. He has battled heart disease for many years. He was a kind, generous person who was outgoing and very involved in his community. We often saw the world very differently but he always had unconditional love for me. Everyone needs someone like that in their lives.
Sometimes I asked him too many questions about his ideas and it made him uncomfortable. He was a person who had a strong faith in what he believed and didn’t like different points of view. My nature is one of curiosity, inviting new perspectives and encouraging the search for truth.
Exploring life is what I write about. As you explore the following choices be aware that they have great power in shaping who you are and how you live your life.
The choices you make every day will either fill you full of light or send you down in flames. Some will be less dramatic but each choice has such influence over your sense of self and the kind of impact you have in the world.
The following are 66 of the moment-to-moment choices you are given to explore on a daily basis. Choose wisely; be guided by your intuition, your heart and your higher nature.
