Introduction to Round 2: If you are following along with the Guiding Thoughts I provide, this introduction is for you (if you are providing your own thoughts, skip down to continue the exercise). We have completed the first 10 days! In the next “round”–the next 10 days– the format will change slightly. In the last round, you were the subject of the meditation: All of the meditations were from the first-person singular, “I”. In this round, we will shift to the second-person singular. Instead of saying, for example, “I have forgotten my Self”, you will now say, “you have forgotten your Self”.

Corresponding to this language shift, your thoughts will also shift from “I” to “you”. Instead of claiming the Truth of You for you, by yourself, someone will claim it for you and give it to you, or you will claim it for someone, and give it to them. There are four options to accomplish this. Use your imagination and creative thinking to “see” the “you” in one of these ways (use what feels right to you, or come up with your own.):

Option 1. Picture yourself in a classroom, or at the feet of a guru, or talking with a trusted friend, or being instructed by a wise teacher, or other such situation in which someone you trust is giving you wise information. In this scenario, that person is speaking the Guiding Thought to you. You are the you of the statement; that person is telling you a truth about yourself, reminding you of something you already know; helping you remember your Self.

Option 2. You are the instructor at the head of a classroom, the guru, the trusted friend, or the wise teacher who is the one speaking to a student, friend, person who needs a reminder. Imagine a friend, a relative, a colleague as that person (or people) you are speaking to. This person seeks your counsel; he needs your wisdom; she needs you to remind her of who she is, what she has forgotten about herself. You are giving him the gift by remembering for him.

Option 2, variations: (a) Instead of giving the meditation phrases to a friend, imagine instead giving it to someone with whom you have conflict or stress. (b) Instead of giving to one person, see a medley of people pass through your screen; “talk” with as many people as you can imagine. (c) Feel your thoughts going out to all people everywhere—people you know, people you don’t know, your town, a village on the other side of the world, anyone, everyone.

Option 3: On the screen of your mind, where you are seeing these images, split the screen, so there are two “sides”. On the first side of your screen imagine Option 1. Take each phrase of the meditation as the listener, the student. Feel it deeply, then shift to the second side of the screen and use Option 2. With each phrase, receive a thought, then immediately give it to someone.

Sharing, sharing, sharing….Let’s do this!

Guiding Thought

You have forgotten your Self. You have forgotten who you are. You have forgotten that you are established in Love and by Love, which is infinite and eternal; therefore, your worth is infinite and eternal.

Seek to remember your Self; choose to remember your Self.

Choose to remember who you are, and your infinite worth in Love.

Choose to be aware, to understand, and to Know yourself (your Self) as the Love that you are.  Choose to share who you are with the world, giving your infinite worth, measured in infinite Love.

The Guiding Thoughts audio for this Journey may be found here.

Reflection

What will remain when the world wakes up?

What dreams will be forgotten? What inspirations will take their place?

I have forgotten my Self because I am asleep, along with the rest of the world.

Collectively, we sleep. No longer is it a deep sleep; now it is that state of hovering between sleeping and waking, dreaming and opening the eyes. The state of choice: do I roll over and go back to sleep, or do I open my eyes and begin my day?

It’s a new dawn; it’s a new day. Each one of us is choosing: do I face it, or do I pull the covers up and return to unconsciousness?

What will remain?
What will remain is that which is True, what is established in and by Love, that which is Infinite and Eternal.

If you choose to wake–and not to keep your eyes closed–you will wake into your Self.

If you are curious here’s my writing from The very first Journey of Worth, seven, years ago Day 11.  

Guiding Thought

If I am to be my Self in the world, I must be for others as well as myself. There is no other. I am willing to be receptive to the Infinite Love of All. I am willing to understand how I must rise above the struggles and pains of the world. I am willing to rise again and again with each call for help, each outstretched hand. I am willing to be the one to choose to change. I offer my pain, suffering, guilt, and blame up for transformation, into the light of Love, that I may see and give only the light of Love always.

Reflection

“If you go out far enough, you turn back in; if you go in far enough you turn back out” a friend said recently.

When I began these Journeys seven years ago, they were only about me.  I created the first Journey to help me figure out my own purpose. Each Journey thereafter was a way for me to dig deeply into the barriers and obstructions that hindered my upward (ascension/enlightenment) progress. I didn’t care about you or your process, even though I knew the deeper I go, the more I pave the way for you to go deeper. Yes, these Journeys can and will benefit you; my own upward growth lifts humanity just that much more. But I didn’t do it for you. I did it for me.

Then I shifted and suddenly it felt right to do the Journeys on behalf of everyone on the planet, all 7.5 billion of us. The inner-direction became the outer-directed. I didn’t plan it; I didn’t intend it. I came across the idea that in doing it for myself I was able to do it for everyone, so I said, “sure, why not; same effort, larger results. I’ll do that”. I spent two years in that frame of mind while doing the Journeys.

I feel like I have taken another turn inward. Again, it’s not intentional or planned; it’s just happening. Just now, I find it very difficult to feel like I can do much for anyone beyond myself, much less for 7.5 billion people.

I feel like something new has been planted within me. It’s still small and not well rooted. I need to take care of it, nurture it, give it love and encouragement so that it will grow and become stronger. My focus and my attention must be given to this part of me; I must maintain my vigilance within in order to nourish this.

This does not mean I am not here for you. There is no other; we are One. Every direction leads back into itself, like a mobius strip turning, turning and changing with each turn.

With each turn, we become stronger together lifting each other, breaking each others’ fall. And together we rise.

If you are curious here’s my writing from The very first Journey of Worth, seven, years ago Day 10.  

Guiding Thought

I am worth the effort it requires to move my mind into Love. I am worth the time of waiting, in patience, for Knowing to arrive. Every moment, every second that I open to simply being willing for Love to enter is a moment offered to Eternity; a moment offered to healing, a moment offered to Unity.

Love simply settles slowly, quietly, gently, beyond sense-perception. So I must wait in patience and take the effort to move my mind to join the quiet stillness of Love. Here I rest. Here is Peace. Here is all I want and need.

Reflection

I forget about patience. I forget about stillness. I feel somehow this is connected with the first day, “I have forgotten myself…”… but I could not tell you how they are connected at the moment.

I do think I am worth the time of waiting. I just don’t always have the patience for it. That’s the point, though, right. To eternity, time matters not. Eternity has forever to wait for me to remember myself.

I am willing for Love to enter, and to offer that moment to healing and Unity.

What is this impatience today? I feel impatient. Or, perhaps, I am recognizing this within me. Rooting. Digging up.

And, yes. It feels like an effort to move my mind to join the quiet stillness…

But how or why do I feel like moving toward Love is an effort? Love should be simple and easy. Natural. Effortless.

It’s like I can feel the place I am going (Love, stillness, Peace), but I don’t have the patience to stay there.

I am paying attention to this now, a bit more, as an obstacle to my Peace that I need to release.

If you are curious here’s my writing from The very first Journey of Worth, seven, years ago Day 08.  

Guiding Thought

I claim who I am, the essence of my Self, established in and by Love. My Self shines with the strength, beauty, and power of its essence, Love. As I open to my Self, accept my Self, and Love my Self, the Life of Unity infuses all my activity and transforms my consciousness. Life as my Self renews my Joy and restores my trust in Life itself.

Reflection

I am my Self. My Self and I are One. My Self is my Self, but not myself.

My Self’s essence is Love. Love established my Self as Itself.

My Self is Love. I am Love.

Opening to my Self is Opening to Love. Accepting my Self is accepting Love. Loving my Self is Love Loving Itself.

We are ALL One. (from yesterday’s Guiding Thought)

I am Love, you are Love. We are One. This is the Life of Unity. All One, equal in Love.

What kind of life is this?  Each and all of us knowing our Selves as Love, Knowing each other as Love, Knowing our Unity?

Joyful. Trusting. Yeah, let’s claim this, and get to that place. Let’s live in that Life, each, ALL of us, together.

If you are curious here’s my writing from The very first Journey of Worth, seven, years ago Day 07.  

Guiding Thought

We are ALL One. I am not alone. Alone becomes All One in Unity and Healing. I am that which you are, which we become together. There is no separation—through healing and forgiveness, we unite. At One there are no limits, at One there are no boundaries. At One I am free—with you.

The Guiding Thoughts audio for this Journey may be found here.

Reflection

“Alone becomes All One in Unity and Healing.” This makes me think of an explanation of “how energy operates” that I once heard. It’s like this:

Energy is just energy. It’s neither good nor bad, neither positive nor negative, neither constructive nor destructive. What makes the difference is how a person uses it. If a person lights a match, that’s just energy. The person could use the flame to burn down a house or start a forest fire; or the person could use the flame to light a fire for warmth, or a candle to light the way.

It was further explained that we are all made up of energy, and energy flows through us. We direct that energy with our thoughts, which control our behaviors. Too often, however, we do not know our own thoughts; we are unaware that our behavior is a direct result of how we have directed our own energy with our own thoughts. Too many of our thoughts are unconscious, or subconscious, and so it feels as though things happen to us, rather than that we have decided what actions we are going to take.

Emotions are when our energy gets “stuck” in a loop of subconscious or unconscious thought patterns, and we feel like we have no choice. When we free that energy, and allow it to flow, we no longer are in that loop. We now have awareness of options, of having a choice. This puts us in a state of being, rather than in an emotional loop. Same energy, different thought-origin, different direction. Alone becomes All One.

One step in healing separation is bringing those subconscious and unconscious thoughts to the conscious mind to be released and transformed, and also making new choices about which thoughts to think, so that more and more of one’s thoughts become conscious choices.

If you are curious here’s my writing from The very first Journey of Worth, seven, years ago Day 06.  

Guiding Thought

My worth is inestimable, beyond compare!

I always know I have everything to give—thus, I may always give freely! I know my worth, I give it; I give freely, and I Know in the giving!

As I give, I learn, allowing Joy and Peace to lead and to guide me. I follow willingly for I know: Where there is Joy and Peace, there is Love; where there is Love, I Am; where I Am, I am giving my inestimable worth.

The Guiding Thoughts audio for this Journey may be found here.

Reflection

It’s hard to think about/imagine my worth being “inestimable”.

I am so conditioned to think of worth or value in finite terms, like dollars or tasks that I am able to accomplish, or tangible things that I have to give.

What is this “inestimable”?

I can think/imagine that I know I have everything to give…isn’t that like being a child of the Universe, with all opulence my birthright? This is not a foreign concept, though it’s a totally different thing to know I have everything to give. Where do I start? To whom do I give? What do I give?

I feel like in this case giving has more to do with an attitude of giving, rather than the actual giving of anything…

Or does it?

There I am again, in my pre-conditioned framework that what I have to give must be tangible, and measured in finite terms.

What if what I have to give is intangible and infinite?

What is it like to give what is intangible, and if it’s intangible, how do I know I am giving it?

Again, I think it’s a matter of attitude. If I can get into the feeling of giving, and the feeling of being able to give infinitely of whatever I have, a kind word, a smile, a loving thought, and if I can do that for more and more moments, more and more instances in each day…then I am headed toward learning to give my inestimable worth!

*Mistakes Happen: I accidentally did day 05 yesterday instead of day 04. So, these two days are swapped in order. I hope I did not confuse anyone too much!

If you are curious here’s my writing from The very first Journey of Worth, seven, years ago Day 04.  

Guiding Thought

I love myself for the Truth within me. The Truth within me Knows me for who I am—Pure Love, Only Love, beyond all valuing of the world. In Love all are equal, for we are One. This is how Truth Knows me—Pure, One, and Free. This is my Truth; this is our Truth; this is the Self I love.

The Guiding Thoughts audio for this Journey may be found here.

Reflection

In my experience with the Journeys, there are three “levels” (so far, that I’ve discovered) that the consciousness can express in learning to Be the Divinity that We Are, that I Am.

1. The first level is the digging up and rooting out that I mentioned in my Why?. At this level, there can be a lot of doubt, uncertainty and resistance because this level involves finding and facing perhaps uncomfortable thought patterns that were possibly associated with “lower”, “fear-shame-guilt-grief-anger-selfish” feelings and behaviors. I mean…who wants to look at that stuff and admit that it is or was part of a personal identity? Who–especially those on a higher path–wants to admit to anything about the existence or pre-existence of a lower-self? At this level, there are three things that are really important:
   1. Let it out. Face it. Bring it to the surface to be healed/transmuted. It doesn’t “just go away”. You need to escort it out, and you need to do that by choosing to, and then doing it.
   2. Practice gentleness and non-judgement. There have been times in my past when I have been very cold, uncaring, and hurtful. I have intuitive memories of previous lives when I have been a downright “bad” person. If you believe that the core of who we are is a unique energy signature/frequency/vibration, and that that unique energy signature continues through what we call lifetimes, then it stands to reason that we have all had hundreds, thousands, maybe millions or billions of these lifetimes. We have tried each end of the “good-bad” spectrum and everywhere in-between. At this level, it’s not about judgement or guilt, it’s about learning and living by choice– do you want to be “good” or “bad”? Make the choice, claim it, live it.
   3. Keep going. The only way out is through.
2. At this level, there is not so much digging and rooting, but there is still facing, which is making the choice. At this level, there may still feel like there is an option to choose something other than being your Divine Self. You are only ever your Divine Self. That is the Choice. But since we live in a free-will world, YOU must choose it, consciously, willingly, preferably joyfully and gratefully. So at this level, you are practicing choosing, breaking the habits of the lower-self, and experiencing lots of nuanced situations where you need to decide, listening with the guidance of your heart: Do I want to act as my lower self, or do I want to act as my Higher Self? This level can feel like a lot of work; it can also require a lot of faith: that the choice you make today matters to who you are becoming. The more often you choose to act as your Higher Self, though, the easier it gets.
3. This is the level of pay off from the work done at level two. Once you begin to choose to act as your Higher Self more and more often, and the easier it becomes, this is the level of realizing the Truth of Who You Are–having an experiential understanding that you really are your Divine Self. You really are not the stories you have been told about who you are; you are not your past; you are not the emotions that flow through you; you are Harmony, Love, Justice, Peace, Abundance, and all those qualities that describe the Divine. And you believe it, and Know it, and want to live it more and more.

There will be different reactions to the Guiding Thoughts at all three levels. For example, someone at level one, may not love themselves very much, and so may have a strong (“negative”) response to the words, “I love myself”. But even that can be overcome by acknowledging that there is a Truth within. And even if someone does not currently love themselves, they can accede to loving themselves for the Truth within. Especially if that Truth within Knows them  only with and as Pure Love.

Maybe if Pure Love can love them, they can begin to love themselves. and then make choices to do that more often. Then to actually believe it and live it.

Let’s get to that place together, all of us believing and living our existence as Pure Love, One, and Free.