Tag Archives: Unity

Healing Through Gratitude

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vibrant healthThere have been so many studies documenting the healing power of gratitude.  A regular practice of gratitude has been proven to lower blood pressure, reduce heart attacks, reduce, stress, increase better sleep and better digestion.  The list goes on.  In fact, there is not a single part of us that cannot be positively impacted by a proactive gratitude practice.

Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, healed herself of tuberculosis (a killer in the1880’s) in large part through a practice of sending her body thoughts of love and gratitude.  In addition to a positive affirmation she learned, she had a realization about the healing power of gratitude she described this way…

“Life has to be guided by intelligence in making all forms.  The same law works in my own body.  Life is simply a form of energy, and has to be guided and directed in man’s body by his intelligence.” How do we communicate intelligence? By thinking and talking, of course. Then it flashed upon me that I might talk to the life in every part of my body and have it do just what I wanted.  I began to teach my body and got marvelous results.”

She then began to go through all the organs and parts of her body and “spoke words of strength and power.”  She sent each organ love and expressed gratitude for them.  She would envision them functioning perfectly.  She says, “I told them they were no longer in bondage to the carnal mind; that they were not corruptible flesh, but center of life and energy omnipresent.”   Keep in mind it’s language from 1880’s.  But you get that she’s talking about raising her consciousness from the purely human-physical dimension and affirming the Absolute Truth from the Spiritual Realm – and not just words, but words filled with tons of feeling…tons of love and appreciation.

That’s key. Words, by themselves, really don’t have the power to change anything. It’s words coupled with feeling that has power.  We want our words to invoke a feeling-tone…a feeling-tone of love and tremendous gratitude.  That feeling-tone generates a vibration.  And it’s that vibration that lifts the physical body so healing can happen.

Would you like an experience of that right now? If so, follow along with my meditation here. (I will be posting the guided audio meditation soon, but for now you can read the following, get a sense of it, then close your eyes and allow the wisdom within you to guide you.)

Close your eyes and begin to take some slow, deep, cleaning breaths.  When you are relaxed and centered, bring your attention to an area of your body that may be giving your trouble, or that doesn’t feel 100% right now.  Now, bring to mind something, or someone you absolutely love.  Focus on the feeling of love, and allow that feeling to grow within you.  Now, consciously send that area of your body this abundant love.  Feel vibrant, glorious love infusing this area.  See it as a vibrant center of omnipresent life, glowing with radiant energy. Feel the beauty of the Divine radiating there.  Now, think about how this organ or part of your body has served you in your life. If it’s not functioning well now, think of a time it did function well. Feel gratitude welling up within you for all the days that part of your body functioned well — for all the times it worked in harmony with the trillions of other cells that work together in harmony with each other in your body every minute.  Express your joyous gratitude for this part of your body…and for your entire body.  It has served you so well in your life.  Much more than you realize right now.  Allow that joyous gratitude to grow and radiate throughout your entire body.  Now, feel that part of your body responding to your love and gratitude.  The cells within that area are waking up and allowing the innate wholeness that has always been there, to come back online.  They are waking up and blossoming like a flower feeling the loving, radiant warmth and light of the sun.  Enjoy bathing in this feeling for a few minutes.

Now, take a deep breath and bring your awareness back to the room.

Try this exercise daily for the next few weeks and see if it makes a difference in your health.  The science supports that indeed it will.  Let me know how it goes.

And check back here soon for a link to the audio of the above meditation.

 

The Magnetizing Power of Love

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universal swirl

Energy creates and energy attracts.  And there are two very powerful energies available to us:  the energy of fear, and the energy of love.  They are both powerful energies that magnetize more of what we’re either loving, or more of what we’re fearful.  Of these, love is a powerful magnetizer.  And I’m speaking of love in terms of what it really is – a Power, a Divine Power, and not a feeling.  I’m not referring to the love you feel for your spouse, your children, your pets, etc.  I’m talking about the Power that is the energy of God in our lives.  We get a glimpse of that power when we fall in love, or when we watch our children doing something amazing, or when we pet our cat or dog.  But the power of love is so much more. It’s the power that creates the universe and that expresses as each one of us.

Charles Fillmore has said, “God does not love anybody or anything.  God is the love in everybody and everything.  God is the love; man becomes loving by permitting that which God is to find expression in word and act.”

But you see, we can’t experience that while we’re in fear.  And, on the surface, there seems to be a lot to be fearful of these days.  It’s a challenge to stay centered in Love.  Some people just don’t want to hear what’s happening, don’t want to read the news, because they don’t want to get sucked up in the negative energy.  And believe me, I understand that.

I think part of the fear comes from a sense of powerlessness.  We sometimes feel powerless over the forces that seem to be taking over.

What’s the best cure for a sense of powerlessness?  Taking action.  Standing up, speaking our truth, taking some kind of action…even if it seems small.  All of this helps us reclaim our sense of power.  And it all makes a difference.   But we must do it from a place of love.  We must connect with our Love Power Center first and with our awareness of our oneness with everyone, then we take action.    When we do this, we are contributing to the healing of the world, rather than just building more fear.

There is a saying in the Course in Miracles that goes: “You create what you defend against.”  For a long time, I didn’t really know what that meant.  I finally came to the understanding that when you are defending against something, you are giving it a lot of energy.  You are giving what you really don’t want, lots of energy.  You also are usually in fear of that thing you are defending against.  And remember what I said, fear magnetizes to itself more of same.

So it’s really important that we are not fighting against, or defending against, but instead loving what it is we want.

There’s a passage in the Upanishads that goes:

“As great as the infinite space beyond is the space within the lotus of the heart.  Both heaven and earth are contained in that inner space, both fire and air, sun and moon, lightning and stars.  Whether we know it in this world or know it not, everything is contained in that inner space.”

We can use this power of love to create what it is we really want, both personally and for our world.

We can use this magnetizing power of love…that we have as one of our spiritual powers…to draw to us what we really want…both personally in own individual lives, and collectively as a world.   Let’s hold in our minds eye the realization of whatever we truly desire both personally…whether that’s more joy, better relationships, increased prosperity, fulfillment, healing, guidance (whatever it is) and hold in our mind’s eye what we want as a country…inclusiveness, diversity, peace, harmony, opportunity and prosperity for all, a government that works, a collective agreement to see, and to treat our planet as sacred.  Hold that in your mind’s eye and then activate that power center of love within you.  Feel the love radiating out from your heart like a light, and place that vision right in the light of that love.

I’ve recorded a meditation that guides you step-by-step through the entire process.  If you fill out the form below I will be happy to send it to you free.

Gratitude Experiment: Day 4

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I am so grateful for all the loving, supportive friends at my spiritual community, Unity of Chapel Hill! What a blessing to so loved by others, and to love them and support them. Love is most assuredly, the greatest gift of all.

I am also grateful for what does not happen. Do you ever think about how close you, or your loved-ones come on occasion to getting hurt, or getting into an accident, or losing something, or not  making it somewhere on time, but miraculously…what could happen, doesn’t.  I’m grateful for all those times!