Author Archives: Victoria @ Gratitude Experiment

Radio Interview on Gratitude

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Tonight, June 5th at 8:00pm EST I will be talking about the transformational practice of proactive gratitude with Judy Hansen on Celebrate You!  I hope you’ll listen in and call with questions.  The show will also be archived so you can pull it up and listen at any time.  Just go to: BlogTalk Radio to listen.

Everyone who visits this site can receive a free Gratitude Note Pad with which to record your 5 daily gratitudes.  For those who listen in to the show, I will include an extra pad for free.  Just click the box on the right to order, and let me know you listened to the show.  You’ll only pay shipping and handling.

Talk to you soon!

Practical Mysticism

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“In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness, of spurious self-isolation in a special world, the world of renunciation and supposed holiness… This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud… But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

This was Thomas Merton’s accounting of a mystical experience he had in 1958.  Quite the experience, right?  And quite the realization that accompanied that experience!  

But mystical experiences do not need to be this intense to cause a shift in our awareness.  In fact, they can range anywhere on a wide spectrum of, at one end, the real intense, cosmic-consciousness kinds of experience, and on the other end, the more subtle experiences.  More often than not, mystical experiences are much more subtle, and sometimes go unmarked.  Let’s call these subtler ones “opening our mystic-heart.”

You might have a mystic-heart experience in those moments where, say…you and a loved one share a deep connection…a true “heart-moment” and you lose track of time and place.  Or, in a moment you are looking at the sky – the sunset maybe, or just clouds moving across the sky and you are in a state of awe…again losing a sense of location and time.  Those moments become transcendent.  It could also happen in those moments where you drift off and catch just a glimpse of another dimension…or some insight comes to you directly from Source, and you suddenly have a strong realization about something.  Those are all mystic-heart experiences, and what we’re really experiencing in those moments is our natural state…the Divine beings that we are.   It’s this “being human” thing that fools us into thinking that we are locked in the limitations of time and space and that we are just a physical body.  This is not our natural state.  We’re just here for awhile expressing in this human dimension….and hopefully bringing our love and sharing our gifts with the world.  That’s really what we’re all here for, right?

Wayne Teasdall, explains what mysticism is in his book, The Mystic Heart: “Mystical wisdom enlarges our understanding and gives us access to the experience of ultimate reality – to the principles governing existence.  Mysticism grants us a picture of the totality; it is the most precious wisdom we have.”

We want to cultivate these mystic moments and encourage them, because with each mystic-heart opening, our vibration is lifted and we’re a little freer of the shackles human limitation.  With each mystic-heart moment, we become a little more awake.

But the how still remains, right?  How do we achieve this? How do we cultivate cosmic-consciousness?

William Blake gave us a clue when he wrote:  “If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is—Infinite.”

So it’s not about trying to achieve something at all.  It’s about cleaning the gunk from our windows so we can see reality!  It’s about purifying our vision so we can see our oneness with the Infinite.

Well, there are ways we can “cleanse the windows through which we see the world.”  And, by the way, these are not just my methods…these are across the board, time-tested methods going all the way back to the Tao Te Ching, and to St. Teresa, and to Evelyn Underhill who wrote the guide to “Practical Mysticism” back in the 1920’s. This is just my personal interpretation of it.

1. Open your heart wide.  Spirit resides within all of nature and It also resides within the center of each and every one of us…even if some are doing a good job of covering it up!  Therefore, search for the Spirit in everything and in everyone.   You’ll find it if you keep looking.  Also, allow God to love you.   The Infinite loves you so totally and unconditionally…exactly as you are right now.   You are beloved.  Let it in.  Allow yourself to feel loved.  Let it fill your heart and soul.  The following affirmation might be helpful to do in the morning, and right before falling to sleep at night.

I consciously open to the Cosmic Power of Love within my heart.  I see Spirit in everything and everyone.  I accept that God loves me totally and completely right now.  I am a beloved, Radiant One.

2.  The second way is to: Get comfortable with the questions…with wondering.

William Martin says in The Sage’s Tao Te Ching.  “Some see answers as strong and questions as weak…But I tell you the truth: The happy person is not the one with all the answers.  Each new question is an affirmation of the delight of living.”

Do you want more delight in living?  Then begin to get more comfortable with not knowing the answers to everything.  Become more comfortable with the unknown, the undefinable edges…the why…the mystery.  That’s what mystics do.  It’s the same root word.  The arrogance that comes from one thinking he or she has all the answers is what leads to fundamentalism, and rigid institutions, and politics.  Lots of people get hurt over one side thinking they have all the answers.   You see this playing out all over the Middle East.  You see it here in the halls of congress.  Each side thinking they know what’s best for the country…and for everyone.  And they won’t even pretend to listen to what the other side has to say.  What comes from knowing all the answers to everything?  Pain and suffering.  Those are extreme example of course, but we all do it on a smaller scale.  We think we know the answers to a lot of things.

So, we want to get more comfortable with wondering.  We can practice this by wondering how the Divine will unfold in someone’s life – maybe someone you’ve been thinking about, or praying about — and not thinking you know what would be best for them.  Or, wondering how big the universe is..how expansive is it?  Or, what it’s like in the afterlife.  We can also wondering how we can be both human and Divine at the same time.  And don’t look for answers!!  Just be in the question.  What an amazing mystery life is!

3.  Refuse to pre-judge anything. This is such a habit with us human beings.  We do it so much we don’t even know we’re prejudging.  Someone asks us if we want to go see a movie and we say “no, I don’t like genre of film, or that actor.  I won’t see it.”  Or we’re invited to a party and we say, “no, I won’t know anyone there and it would be awkward.”  Or we refuse to try the Uni Sushi on the menu because it looks weird and we’re certain we won’t like that.  Or worse, we refuse to talk to, and get to know someone, because of the way they’re dressed or the way they talk.  We’ve prejudging him or her.  Whenever we’re tempted to say no, or turn our backs, or refuse to participate in something, it could be a clue that we’re pre-judging.  So, see if you can catch yourself, and instead stay open.  “Hmmmm, I don’t really know what this experience will be like, but I’m not going to pre-judge it.  I’m gonna remain open and see what gifts there are in it for me.”

4.  We want to put aside the endless classification of things.  And also refuse to accept anything for what it first appears to be.  This tendency to classify and categorize happens more the older, and more knowledgeable we get.  We look at the world and when we see things we don’t really see them.  We see a name in our head.  Oh, that’s a cardinal. Yes, I know what that is.  The male is bright red and the female is more brown.  Rather than…oh my God!  Look at that gorgeous bird!  It’s so brilliantly red!!  It’s exquisite!!!  We do this with flowers too.  Those things that have just come up my garden are iris’s – black irises.  The first time I saw anything like that, it took my breath away.  It’s impossibly deeply purple! Now, that I know what they are, I can dismiss them with a “oh that;s a black iris.”   And the fragrant smell that’s in the air right now in North Carolina? That’s honeysuckle.  I’d never smelled that until I came here, and when I did the first time, it was like heavenly ambrosia.  I thought I died and gone to heaven. Then someone told me what it was, and now, it’s like…oh yeah, that’s honeysuckle.

There’s something about naming and classifying something that just sucks all the magic out of it.   How can we get back to the magic of it? How can we regain that sense of awe we had when we first encountered something we didn’t know what it was?   I was thinking about this the other day.  One way I thought of is to have a baby.  With a new baby you get to re-experience life all over again with it…everything is awesome.  They are in total awe of everything that first year.  But alas, that doesn’t last. They quickly grow into teenagers! And then, everything is boring.  So, not a good plan.

Teresa of Avila told her pupils, “I do not require of you to form great and curious considerations in your understanding.  I require of you no more than to look.”  I think she meant to gaze with a new and cleansed vision on the same things we’ve been looking at and dismissing with a, “oh, well that’s a (fill in the blank.)”  What we really need to do is to transcend the intellect…that part of us that wants to classify and categorize.  And then get into a state of gratitude for what we’re encountering.  This is how we can experience things as if for the first time.   Gratitude is how we get into direct communication with life itself…and experience the miracle of the creation, on piece at a time!  It takes practice.  (See other articles on this blogsite on how to practice proactive gratitude.)

5.  Finally…and here’s the tough one…surrender.  Surrender to Spirit.  That means, surrender that all-mighty ego!  And it often feels like death.  But it’s only when we surrender our little self (die to the small self) that the Infinite has room and can move in, fill us with ecstatic love, Divine Life Energy, and enfold all our activities in the one unifying “cosmic context.

This surrendering rarely occurs completely all at once.  Those it does happen to this way often experience a “dark night of the soul.” For many mystics, their illumination came at the very end of their “dark night of the soul.”   Some of you may have already experienced that.

For most of us though, we can do this gradually and gently.  Nothing wrong with that!  We can encourage a gradual letting go of the ego and surrendering to Spirit by affirming every morning:

I step back and let God lead the way. (Or,) I step back and let Love lead the way.

And then check ourselves throughout the day.  Is that my ego responding to this, or is it the Love within me?   If it’s the ego, we have the freedom to then, choose again.

In the moments when we can keep our heart’s open, and see things anew, and refuse to pre-judge anything, and soften our rigidity and let our Love lead the way….in those moments…we open to and can experience the Mystic Heart!

Gratitude Opens Doors

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Gratitude open us up to the limitless potential that is all around us.  It opens our hearts, allowing more love to flow.  It opens our powers of perception and we see so much of what we were missing before.  Gratitude opens our minds, allowing more intelligence and creativity to flow.  It opens energy centers in our body, allowing more wellbeing to flow. Gratitude opens the doors to our life, allowing more possibility to flow.

We have at our command a powerful healing and prospering tool.  It is the daily practice of gratitude.  Try it…now.  Think of 5 things for which you are grateful right now.  At the end of the day, think of 5 things that you are grateful for that occurred that day.  Repeat this practice tomorrow…and the next day…and the next, until it becomes a joyful habit and you find yourself looking for things to be grateful for in every situation…in every moment.  If you do, I promise this: your life will transform.

Love in Action Begin in Our Own Hearts

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I just recently heard again a story I’d heard awhile back about the Dalai Lama who, when he came to this country for the first time, he was teaching the Loving-kindness Meditation – which of course begins with expressing LK to yourself first: “May I Be Happy, May I Be at Peace”…etc. he was dumbfounded when people would tell him they had trouble with that part of it.  That it was easier to hold other people in their hearts, but they couldn’t do it for themselves…they had a hard time loving and being compassionate to themselves.  He was completely taken aback.  It was apparently unheard of in his country!

What is it about this culture that makes it difficult to love and be compassionate to ourselves?  Are we taught that this is selfish and vain?  Is it a holdover from our Christian “work & self-sacrifice at all times” ethic?

Or is it because we have such a hero-worshipping culture? We glorify beautiful young stars who can sing perfectly and dance amazingly, or excel at sports or succeed phenomenally in business. And when we compare ourselves to this standard we always come up short.   Is it not enough to be our personal best…we need to be impossibly stellar?

Maybe it’s a combination of these two things.  Whatever it is, we can begin to turn this around with practice.

1. Take notice of all the times you berate yourself for little things throughout the day, like forgetting something or not completing a task you wanted to complete, or not communicating something to someone like you wanted to, or giving into temptation and eating the entire box of Valentine’s chocolates :-).  Just notice how many times a day you are judging yourself.  And now, take note of how many times you praise yourself for the times you are loving and patient, and you do communicate something well, and you do finish a task and you do remember something!

2. Take a page from my friend Rhonda Britten’s playbook:  At the end of the day, write down 5 things you can acknowledge yourself for.  They could be as simple as you made someone smile, or that you made time to meditate that day.  Then look over the list and allow yourself to feel how good it feels to nurture loving and accepting yourself.

3. Listen to the guided meditation I’ve posted (or will post shortly) here on my Unity Center of Peace website that helps nurture your “inner hero” (which I guided congregants through last Sunday.)

4. Now that you’re on our way to nurturing love and compassion for yourself – the next logical thing is to realize that we are all connected.  Like one big gorgeous diamond with millions of facets…we are all facets of the same one gem.  So it becomes natural then to want to extend our love when we first nurture it within ourselves.  We find that being kind comes naturally…therefore we let someone in on the highway, or we have a genuine smile for the cashier, or we find ourselves raising our hand to volunteer to help out.   It’s who we are as expressions of love to extend that love into the world that we are so much a part of.

5. Take your love and acceptance of yourself and your love and acceptance of others into action in the world.  Meditate and/or pray about how you can best use your time and talents to share your love with the world….to be of genuine service.  And then, get moving in that direction.

Remember what Ram Dass said in his book, How Can I Help?:

“When our models of who we are fall away, we are free simply to meet and be together.  And when this sense of being encompasses all — one another, the park, the rain, everything — separateness dissolves and we are united in compassion.  Helpful Being then is the goal. What we have to offer others will come from our sense of unity.  So we look for and cherish those experiences in which we feel ourselves connected to all things and to the universe….There’s more to the deed than the doer and what’s been done.  You yourself feel transformed and connected to a deeper sense of identity.”

How Gratitude Helps Us Achieve Our Intentions

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How are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions?  Don’t feel badly it you’ve already let them slide.  Less than 8% of people actually keep their resolutions. Mostly because there’s no deeper motivation behind their goals.  Resolutions can be ego-driven and they often have no inner resonance. When we come from our values and the overall inner vision for our lives we’ll have more success and ultimately be happier.

The thing is many folks don’t actually know what their inner vision is for their life – and don’t know how to create the conditions in consciousness that will allow that vision to come to fruition.

Joseph Campbell, who dedicated his life to studying and teaching about mythic archetypes and what makes for a fulfilling life, said this, “People say that we’re seeking meaning in life.  I don’t think that’s what we are seeking.  I think that what we are seeking is the experience of being alive…so that our life experiences will have resonance within our innermost being.  What we are seeking is our bliss.”

So, the question is…what is your bliss?  It’s different for all of us.  Your bliss is contained in a vision that is uniquely yours.  And, in pursuing that vision, you are fully alive…your heart’s desires are fulfilled.  And when you are living your bliss, it naturally becomes a blessing to others.

But how do we get to that vision?  The best way I’ve found is through a process of visioning.  Visioning connects us with the source of our inner wisdom where our heart’s desires lie.

Visioning is different than visualization, in that you don’t already have a picture in mind and try to focus on that.  In visioning you learn to get still enough to hear your inner wisdom speak about a life beyond your preconceptions of what you might initially think would make you happy.  This wisdom within knows what your highest potential is…what your unique gift is…what you’re bliss is.

In the process of visioning, you learn to open up to this wisdom and listen…then, you listen some more.  After your vision is clear, you then begin write it down.  Finally, you formulate this vision into intention statements.

Having clearly defined intentions is the difference between wishing and hoping and actually having a blueprint for achieving it.  You are giving  direction the Creative Universe can move in.  This initiates the process of conscious co-creation.

The next thing we need to understand is that the fulfillment of true desire is a natural process…it is how the universe operates.  Galaxies are formed, flowers bloom, trees bear fruit and babies are born.  It is the nature of the Universe to come to fruition – to be fulfilled.

Consider a dogwood tree (since moving to N. Carolina it’s become my favorite tree and blossom).  It doesn’t need to struggle to grow or create blossoms.  It doesn’t worry that it won’t bloom.  It doesn’t question whether it’s worthy of such beauty.  It doesn’t feel it’s lucky.  It just grows and blooms.  The essential nature of the dogwood is to express its glory and magnificence.  This is the fulfillment of its purpose.

What’s truly remarkable is that the seed of a dogwood contains all the elements necessary to become a full-size tree blossoming every Spring. The dogwood seed is the dogwood tree in potentiality.  It needs only nurturing of soil and water.   Our desires are like seeds, because inherent in having a desire, is everything necessary for its fulfillment.  It only needs a little nurturing.

So, let’s talk about how we nurture and feed the seeds of our desire which allows them to blossom into full expression…

First you want to read your intentions daily with a feeling of joy and excitement that this is yours now.  It may be only a true desire in seed now, but if you allow it, it will spring forth into full expression in your life.  Alternately, you can create a vision board, or Intention Mandala which has images that represent your desires fulfilled on the board.  A vision board or Intention Mandala is like a visual prayer, and it presents a clear picture to the right side of your brain…the part that responds to images and emotions.  Either way, you want to build acceptance of your vision realized now.

Next…to further nurture the seeds of your vision…recognize and acknowledge all the ways your vision is beginning to show up in your life…all the synchronous events!  Sound obvious, but it never ceases to amaze me how people don’t acknowledge the miracles that are happening in their lives because they might look small or insignificant.  Every little movement forward toward the realization of your intentions is like another inch that plant has grown…another leaf has appeared…oh look, a bud is appearing.  And every time we acknowledge that and express our gratitude for it we are watering our plant.

Before long your inner vision will blossom into full experience in your life.  Enjoy the process!

Countdown to a Fabulous New Year!

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Do you want to end the year on an energetic high and begin the momentum for creating a magnificent New Year?   Then join me in my annual end-of-the-year activity: making a list of 100 things to be grateful for this year.

Don’t have 100 things to be grateful for you say?  Ah, I’ll bet you do. We all do. You just have to exercise the gratitude part of your brain a bit.  So much happens in a year that we tend to forget…in particular the good stuff.  It’s interesting that we usually have no trouble remembering the challenges!

So get out your journal or yellow legal tablet and just start it.  It may seem overwhelming at first, but just start with one…then another one will come…then another.  It doesn’t have to be huge, monumental things.  The small blessings are just as important.  Once you get started you will be amazed at how many things come to you that you hadn’t really considered before. And that’s the great thing about this exercise.  It trains your brain to notice what most people overlook.  And once you do notice it, it’s yours…you own it!  It becomes a part of your life.  That energy then carries you into the New Year on a vibration that will attract even more good into your life, and make your life truly worth living.

So go on. Get out your paper and just begin. You can take a couple of days if you want. There’s no rush. Take your time with it and enjoy.  Then, let me know how it goes for you.

Many blessings for a magnificent New Year!

Making a Regular Practice of Gratitude

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This is from my talk last Sunday at Unity Center of Peace, “Time to Shine Your Light.”  It is one of the most important ways to shine your light!

Most of you know how transformational gratitude can be.  But let’s review briefly…

  1. Gratitude helps us to acknowledge…and actually live in the midst of…all the everyday miracles that are now in our lives…those that normally would be overlooked, like access to clean drinking water, birds singing, washing machines, eyes with which to see, etc.  The list goes on and on.
  2. Gratitude lays hold of the blessing in every challenge and calls it forth.
  3. Gratitude makes apparent opportunities that you would otherwise overlook.
  4. Gratitude raises our energy so that we are vibrating at a higher level and therefore attracting more and more blessings into our lives.
  5. Gratitude is a healing energy.  It can heal physically, emotionally and spiritually.
  6. Gratitude magnifies our light!  If enough of us practice daily gratitude it will raise the vibration of humanity altogether.

But it will do none of these things if we don’t actually make it a daily practice.

So, to support you in your efforts to practice gratitude on a daily basis, I’ve created a “Post-it Note Pad with a reminder and space for you to write down 5 things you are grateful for.  You can fill it out and post it anywhere you’ll see it throughout the day.  I’m offering it free of charge.  You only need to pay nominal shipping.  Click on box to the right to order this.

Also, check in daily on our Facebook page: The Gratitude Experiment and post your gratitude there.  You’ll also be inspired by other’s postings, while giving you ideas for things you hadn’t yet considered being grateful for.

Take advantage of the transformational power of Gratitude by practicing it daily!

Many blessings.

The Powerful Energy of Thanksgiving

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This time of year is rich with the transformational energy of gratitude.  Therefore, I invite you to join all of us who participate in the Gratitude Experiment in making a commitment to practice proactive gratitude on a regular basis.  Searching for, focusing on, and celebrating the blessings in our lives…large and small…increases our blessings and makes for a life truly worth living   And what better time to start than today?

To support you in that effort, here are two prayers…one Native American, and the other more Judeo-Christian in perspective.  And isn’t that the combination which led to our nation’s first Thanksgiving?  Enjoy!

Gratitude to Mother Earth, sailing through night and day–
and to her soil, rich, rare and sweet
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Plants, the sun-facing light-changing leaf
and fine root-hairs, standing still through wind
and rain, their dance is in the flowing spiral grain
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Air, bearing the souring Swift and the silent
Owl at dawn.  Breath of our song
clear spirit breeze
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Wild Beings, our brothers, teaching secrets,
freedoms, and ways, who share with us their milk,
self-complete, brave, and aware
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to Water; clouds, lakes, rivers, glacier,
holding or releasing, streaming through all
our bodies salty seas
in our minds so be it.

Gratitude to the Sun; blinding pulsing light through
trunks of trees, through mists, warming caves where
bears and snakes sleep-he who wakes us-
in our minds so be it

Gratitude to the Great Sky
who holds billions of stars–and goes yet beyond that–
beyond all powers, and thoughts
and yet is within us–
Grandfather Space
The Mind is his Wife.

So be it.

Gary Snyder (after a Mohawk Prayer)

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Give us thankful hearts…in this the season of Thy Thanksgiving.  May we be thankful for health and strength, for sun and rain and peace.  Let us seize the day and the opportunity and strive for that greatness of spirit that measures life not by its disappointments but by its possibilities, and let us ever remember that true gratitude and appreciation shows itself neither in independence nor satisfaction, but passes the gift joyfully on in larger and better form.

W.E.B. Du Bois

It’s No Mystery

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It’s no mystery that practicing proactive gratitude transforms our lives.  There’s no big esoteric, metaphysical phenomenon happening here.  It’s really quite simple.  Here’s how it works…

You make a conscious choice to pull your attention away from all that’s going badly in your life, and begin to focus on all the great stuff…things you normally overlook, or take for granted.  As you do, your mood begins to brighten.  As you continue to do this, your attitude begins to change.  You’re happier, more open to experience and more vibrantly alive.  As that happens, the people around you begin to respond to you differently.  They want to be around you. Your relationships begin to improve.  Your friends want to introduce you to other people. They want to share things with you.  You start finding out about opportunities you never would have known about.  Rather than being pessimistic about your chances with people and/or opportunities, you are suddenly more confident and willing to step out of your comfort zone.  Before long, more opportunities….the right opportunities…begin to come your way.

No mystery…just the realization of the natural law of cause and effect.

Don’t believe me?  Try it for a week and see for yourself.  You must have a commitment to the practice though.  Begin in the morning as you’re getting out of bed — find one thing to be grateful for. Then when you’re brushing your teeth, find another.  As you’re having your coffee, find another.  When you’re in the shower, find another thing to be grateful for.  As you’re heading out the door, find another.  And on and on throughout the day, continue to look for things to be grateful for.  When people around you are finding every reason to complain, you be the one to find something in that situation that is a blessing.  Others may pooh-pooh you at first, but stay with it.  They’ll begin to want to hang around you.  Just being around you makes them feel better, and they won’t even know why.

Keep this up every day for one week.  Then, please share your experiences with me and all the readers here.

I’m so grateful for your willingness to try this!

Sunday Morning Series: Building a New Awareness Pt. 2

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In my last post I talked about how powerful our false core beliefs can be in choking off our good.  So, now what?  How do we effectively eliminate them so that our highest vision for our lives can be realized?

Well, there are some good methods which include one I always recommend: journaling  which helps to get at the root of the belief — where did that belief originate?  Another good way is to just be a witness to the belief as it shows up in your speech, your feelings, and your behaviors.  A method I do with clients in Spiritual Coaching takes it a little more deeply and we do a ritual together that is completed with a burning ceremony.

However, the way that David Owen Ritz (the author of Keys to the Kingdom program on which this talk was based) assert that it is not necessary to do anything with false beliefs, but simply to build our realization of our unity and oneness with God.  The idea here is that a larger idea –an idea of Truth — is more powerful than any limited idea.  Ritz says, “Every circumstance or condition in your life that has been created by a false belief can be healed and transformed by an awareness of Truth – often instantaneously.”  I still maintain that our deeply embedded core beliefs must be address and healed first.  Only then can ideas of Truth take root in our subconscious.

However, we can begin now to build an awareness that we are Divine beings already whole, complete, beloved, abundant and worthy of all good.  There is indeed a part of us that has never been fooled by our false or limited beliefs.  Our higher self knows our full potential.  That’s the place where the highest vision for our lives resides.  And that’s why it’s important to be working with your vision – writing it out, meditating on it and affirming it daily.

Ritz says, “The personal vision that you are building is far more than just a new belief or two about abundance.  It is actually an inner awareness of your true spiritual self and highest human and spiritual potential.  It is a set of wonderful new possibilities that the Universe wants to express through and as you.”  I love that.  Before I read through my vision for my life in the evening before going to sleep, I repeat those two sentences and really let them soak in.

So, in Keys to the Kingdom, Ritz define 7 “truths” that help us build that awareness and acceptance of the good we are claiming in our vision.  Let’s explore these 7 truths together.  

1.  God is the one and only source of your good.   This is really about understanding that the people, places and things in your life – your job, your investments, your business, your spouse’s income, your inheritance….those things are not the Source of your supply – they are channels through which your good flows into your life. God is the ultimate source acting through these channels.  When we look to the channels as our Source, we’re at their mercy.  You can lose your job, and then suddenly you have no income.  Your business or investments takes a downturn and then where are you?   Therefore, you must look to and depend upon God alone as the Source.  The infinite knows how to open other channels through which your good can flow – if you allow it.  The sacred act of tithing to the source of our spiritual support helps connect us with this truth – it acknowledges God as the Source.

2.  Abundance is a here-and-now Reality.    I know it doesn’t look like that now in many of our lives.  It might look like we are struggling to make ends meet, or that our savings accounts are lower than we’d like, or there just isn’t enough left after we’ve paid all our bills to do what we really want to do.  It looks like that.  But we’re confusing temporary “facts” with Divine Truth of infinite abundance.  Lack and limitation are only temporary human experiences that we are creating out of our own ignorance of the Truth. Temporary facts can never alter the greater reality.  Truth can be hidden by temporary facts, but it never changes it.  You can’t change the changeless.

We can train ourselves to see Divine abundance by noticing it in nature.  Can you count the number of leaves on a tree or…where I live in N. Carolina…trees in the forest? Can you count the number of grains of sand on the beach, or gallons of water in an ocean?  I use to love doing this exercise when I drove by orange groves in California.  The number of oranges on all those trees seemed limitless.  It’s such an affirmation of limitless supply.

Training ourselves to affirm the presence of Infinite abundance in nature, helps us see it even in the face of appearances to the contrary.  While the contents of your wallet or the amount in your checking account may appear limited – that’s a temporary fact, right?  Actually your wallet or checking account represents the limitless abundance which lies behind it.   When you think of that amount you can affirm: “This is a temporary fact.  My true Source is limitless.  That Source is right here and right now. I open to it now!”  This is good to do every time you sit down to pay bills.

3.  Abundance is inexhaustible.
A few posts ago I talked about the continual expansion of the universe and everything in nature – how plants continually come to fruition, and produce seed for the next generation of plants.  That’s what this point is all about.  Everything visible and in form originates from an invisible Source. The invisible is the realm of potential and possibilities.  Some refer to this as the Transcendent realm of the Divine.  As it comes into the realm of the visible, or form, it – by it’s very nature – is finite, temporary and constantly changing…but it’s still Spirit.  Some refer to this as Immanent.   God’s creative process is the endless dance between the two realms – the transcendent and the immanent – the formless and the form.   It’s that dance, or that flow that prospers us. Abundance is inexhaustible because the flow of Spirit is ceaseless.   And the more we can practice non-attachment to temporary physical things, the more we are dancing in that flow.  So learning to let go is key.  And I’ll talk more about that next week.

4.  God is meeting your every need at every moment according to your own acceptance.  This point has a lot to do with the Law of Circulation and how much we participate in that, or restrict it’s flow in our lives.  Ritz states:
“Your level of acceptance depends upon 2 things: What you give to life and how you give it.  The what can be your time, talent, financial resources, energy, attention, love – anything you bring to life.  The how is the attitude, intention and awareness that accompanies that which you give.  Together, these two things create the measure of your acceptance.”  We need to develop a deep and abiding trust that when we give of ourselves to life with joy, integrity and love – we are participating in the Law of Circulation – we are building our level of acceptance — and that energy will be returned to us multiplied and running over.

5.  Everyone deserves abundance.  Have you ever created a work of art that you were particularly proud of – whether it was a painting, sculpture, jewelry, or written a poem or a song, or built something, or put something together well – and when it was done you looked at it lovingly and with pride and maybe said, “I did that.  I created that.”  Have you had that experience?
I think that’s a little bit like how God thinks of us. God created us – we are a special piece of art only the mind of the Divine could create.  You can almost hear God saying about you when you were just born, “Wow, I created that.” With immense love and pride!  If you can feel the truth in that, you could never again believe that the Divine would ever withhold anything from you…from any of us.  You could never imagine God saying, “Wow, I created that…now I ordain that he or she suffer and struggle against adversity.”  No.  Not for any of us.

If we could see ourselves as God sees us — we could love ourselves as God loves us – completely and unconditionally.  This point is about loving ourselves completely and unconditionally. This may require some work in self-forgiveness, and that’s where a Spiritual Coach can be of help. In the meantime, breathe in the idea that God loves you so much and that you’ve already been given the Kingdom — from the moment of birth.

6.  Your vision is your inner awareness of your naturally abundant self.
Something inside you wants to push past your limiting beliefs and lift you into higher expression – your Higher Self wants you to be the person you were meant to be.  The Divine has great things in store for you.  And maybe you’re catching just a glimpse of that greatness now.  Once you do, there will be more. To live this truth, Ritz says, “you must be willing to risk personal greatness.”  Which for me means being willing to be the magnificent person you were created to be.

7. Your inner guidance will lead you toward the fulfillment of your vision.

Contained in every acorn is everything it needs to become a mighty oak tree.   The vision for it’s greatness is contained within the little seed – and everything necessary for it’s fulfillment.  It only needs a little soil, sun and water.  The same for us.  Everything necessary for us to realize our highest vision for our lives is contained in the vision itself – it’s the Infinite Intelligence within us that organizes and orchestrates perfect synchronistic events and guides our every step.  We provide the soil, sun and water when we nourish ourselves by engaging in our Spiritual Practices and affirming these truths until we’ve built a new awareness.  That, and by following our inner guidance – not just listening to our inner guidance, but actually following it!

I sincerely hope these ideas begin to shift your awareness to one of knowing your innate worthiness of limitless good.  Again, this Keys to the Kingdom program can be brought into most churches or spiritual centers.  Just visit their website (click here) and inquire.  And if you could use personal guidance to release old patterns and false core beliefs so that these ideas can be incorporated more easily, don’t hesitate to contact me for Spiritual Coaching.