Powerfully Remembering

I've been thinking a lot lately about something Dr. Robert Holden, Director of the Happiness Project said about control. He said, "Shift happens – when you let go!" Too much control can cramp creativity, cause power struggles, block flow and upset relationships." Now, I don't know about you but this new year seems to be seriously kicking butt. It's requiring an unparalleled vigilance to let go! - Letting go of thoughts that no longer serve us, letting go of pain from the past, letting go of grievances toward ourselves and others and letting go of our limiting thoughts. It's as if the universe is conspiring for our good in an unrelenting manner. Ready or not, here we go.

We have been asking and make no mistake, we are getting answers. Unfortunately, sometimes we don't like the answers that we get. Can we be happy and fulfilled without having to change? Apparently not. It was Einstein who said, “You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.” In other words, if we seek to solve our problems from the level of the brain and logic, relying on the same source from which we created them, we only perpetuate what I call faulty problem solving. We must no longer funnel our actions through the pain of our past. It will always color our results and give us more of the same. In this year, like no other, we are being asked to give up our limiting thoughts and beliefs in order to create the lives that we seek. The past does not have to equal the future and yet we rely on the past to give us the vision of tomorrow.  That's all about to change. We live in a time of unparalleled opportunity. 

It is time to reach beyond our pain and our history and our fears, step out of those thoughts that continue to create unwanted circumstances and let go with a vengeance. I believe that 2010 is giving us more opportunity to let go. I am feeling it stronger than ever and I believe it's because we've been asking, universally and individually, stronger than ever. As we continue to ask, pray and request change, the pressure becomes greater in our lives to make those internal changes that are holding us back.

As the great thinkers know anything we seek must begin within us. Nothing is outside of ourselves. As Gandhi put it, "We must become the change that we want to see." And Daisaku Ikeda, Buddhist leader and philosopher says,"A great revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation, and further, will enable a change in the destiny of humankind." We are powerful beyond measure - not only to create the dreams in our own lives, but to change the world. I believe we've come to the limit of tolerance for settling. No longer can we live the small lives that our limiting beliefs have created. We've put out the strong edict...ENOUGH.

I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to postpone my good while I'm working hard for it. Sounds silly, I know. I forgot to trust the process and I took back the reigns of control believing more in what I could make happen through virtue of hard work.  I got so caught up in the work that I kept creating more work. Remember, what we focus on gets bigger. I forgot to let go and trust my higher good. I forgot to have faith in a mystic law that creates unfathomable good in our lives. I forgot.

I thought I could make it all happen and force my dreams into place. Then I remembered that my job is to be responsible for myself on a deeply committed level and let the effect of those causes play out naturally in my environment. I do not have to run around fixing everything in my world;  I must be more concerned with tuning in to a heart and a mind whose intentions are creating my world. I must quickly dismiss any thought that relies on past circumstances telling me that 'I can't do this or that,' 'that will never work,' 'that doesn't make sense.' I must reach for the higher thought, the truth that speaks quietly behind those doubts - that voice of my higher self that reminds me of Jesus' words when he said, "...and greater works than these shall you do..." 

Let's not let the thoughts of worry, about a future that isn't even real and might never come, invade our minds. Let's be vigilant and let go of the past and residual voices that hold us back. We must unequivocally take a stand and say - sorry, but you're not welcome here any more. As Esther Hicks, teacher of the Abraham material, says to those pesky voices, "Thank you for sharing now go to your room." Let's refuse them anymore entry into our lives and our world. Let's take powerful responsibility for our lives and change them in a manner that "will enable a change in the destiny of humankind." Let's enable the good and let go of control that fosters old, unwanted behavior. 

If you need to know which areas of your life need adjustment, listen to your own words. As you offer advice to another listen carefully to the wisdom and guidance you are giving, because it remains true that we teach best what we need to learn.

2010 is leaning on us hard to give us what we've been asking for. This is the year. It is rife with opportunity and relentless in its request for us to let go. What is called for here is diligent attention to returning to the truth of who we are and trusting the relationship between our higher selves and our universe to deliver our hearts desire. I'm committed. Who's with me?

I leave you with a wonderful quote from John F Kennedy who said, "...Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future."

Suze Speaks

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about something Suze Orman said on Oprah. The woman, deemed a “one-woman financial advice powerhouse” by USA Today, for the most part scares the living crap out of me. I fall short on so many levels according to her financial rules. But even some of her best laid plans and strategies for people have buckled under the strain of this economy and she has found it necessary go deeper in her counsel. Remember, she mostly deals with the symptoms of our lives and not with the causes; and yet it’s the causes, the thoughts and the beliefs that speak the loudest and dictate the most. It was to them she spoke when she said, “We must be grateful for what we have, not for what we had.” Brilliant. Simple.

Suze was talking about mourning less over the loss of “stuff” and being more grateful for what we still have. She was advising a minister and his wife, who had lost their life savings, to concentrate on the positive aspects of their lives. She was trying to shift their focus. But like most of us the “yeah but” came into play so quickly, with all of its reasons and justifications, that it pushed her wise counsel right out the window. ‘You make a good point, Suze, but what about my 401k, my retirement, my future? How am I supposed to be happy when I have lost so much?’ When we win in the argument of “yeah buts,” we have all but lost the possibility for providence to move in to create the miracle that was supposed to be born out of the situation. We have just argued for our limitations. We might have been right and justified in our anger but we are certainly not happy.

Suze sure said a mouthful in that succinct admonition. Our lives are hijacked when we mourn our past – whether it be for material things or physical things – thinner, firmer, younger. We become so mired in the thoughts of the past that we miss the happiness that is ours in the moment and surrender the power to change it. As A Course In Miracles so aptly puts it, “You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness.”

When our thoughts dwell in the past or leap to an illusive future, we have just sacrificed joy in our present moment. The moment is where our power lies; it is where we live our lives. When we choose joy it not only makes us feel good in the moment, it also sets a precedent for joy in the next moment, which begins a chain reaction for our good.

Suze also emphasized gratitude, which is such an important stance. It moves us out of the realm of feeling sorry for ourselves or of being a victim, which only serves to make us miserable in the short run and attracts more of the same in the long run. That is not the spiral I wish to descend. Gratitude points us in a more positive direction, but I would go one step further than Suze’s recommendation, I would encourage appreciation. Gratitude is a wonderful emotion, but it implies overcoming some difficult situation, a struggle; while appreciation carries a vibrational essence that is not contingent upon conditions. It aligns us with the source within. I will not call it God since that word is charged with so much meaning. I will simply refer back to the field that we talked about last week. The vibration that the ancients, sages, prophets and teachers have known forever. The field which quantum physicists and scientists are just beginning to define. It is that intelligent field, that “Divine Matrix,” that connects us all. It is responsive to our thoughts and our feelings and it is instrumental in creation. When you are joyful, happy and full of appreciation, you align yourself with a Force that holds galaxies in place.

I would encourage you this week to let go of the past as best you can by focusing on all the beauty that still exists in your life. If you are sad, cry. If you are angry, go beat a pillow senseless until you can release the pain that the anger is masking and then have a good cry. Do anything you need to do to let it go. Do not dwell on the pain. Let go of the story of your past so you can begin to write a new one that will make you happy, that will bring you your hearts desire. Write a gratitude list born out of the situation, and then write an appreciation list about yourself and your life. Assume the best this very moment so that you can give birth to possibilities. As my friend Jacob would say, “lots can happen.”

I leave you this week with a quote by Henry David Thoreau who said, “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in every moment.”