mindfulness

Journey of Gratitude– Why? (2.8.0)

susanwithpearls becoming, Bringers of Light, creation, Enlightenment, Everything changes, Evolutionary Light Worker, Gratitude, Heart, Love, Responsible , ,

Greetings in Love and Light! Welcome to a new year.

Today begins Journey of Gratitude. Let’s go! I’m glad you’re here. I’m glad I’m here. I am already so thankful to be here, with you now, doing this work.

Think and write about why you would like to spend 40 days thinking about, contemplating, and practicing gratitute. Feel free to share with me privately by email, or publicly below.

Why

Back in December, during Journey of Rest, I was having intense waves of gratitude almost daily. I would think about my life, about the support and love that I have, about my relationship with the Great Mystery; I thought about Jesus and what He brought into the world; I thought about being a drop in an infinite ocean, aware of itself, of the ocean, and of its relationship with all the other drops; I would think about how beautiful this life is, the inter-connectivity of everything, and how amazing and wondrous it all is,  and I would (sometimes) just weep with love and joy at how thankful I felt.

At that time, I recognized how gratitude was a doorway for Love. If I didn’t feel Love, I could focus on feeling thankful, and then Love was a breath away.

I thought, “I got this. Journey of Gratitude is going to be so easy. Do I even need a Journey of Gratitude? I just need to stay in this space forever!”

But you know, “this too shall pass”. I usually say that when something is a struggle, but really, it’s true otherwise, as all things are impermanent and changing (until we realize and live our True, eternal selves, anyway).

For the life of me, I have not been able to re-capture that intense feeling of gratitude since around December 23 (right before Christmas). I’m not saying that I haven’t felt thankful. But there’s a difference in mental-practices of gratitude and recognizing things to be thankful for, and the kind of gratitude that overwhelms with emotions of love and joy so much that tears flow.

I think my experiences in December (pre-December 23) were the teaser. “You see? This is what is possible. Are you there yet? No? Keep going.”

So here I am, an ideal in mind as a carrot on a stick, slogging toward it.

I knew I was going to have to write Why today, and I’ve been thinking and thinking about where I’m at with this, juxtaposing my recent loving/joyful gratitude experiences with how I actually feel right here right now.

It would be a cop out to say simply, “I want to work toward that (the ideal, mindlessly following a carrot on a stick). Yeah. It is that, but it’s also more than that.

I want to open my heart to expand in giving and receiving more love.
And gratitude does that.

I want to be of True Service–recognizing and living in the space of knowing what an honor (and responsibility!) it is to serve All in Love.
And gratitude does that.

I want to serve joyfully, inexhaustibly, according to my True, Highest Purpose.
And gratitude does that.

I want to remember my commitment–remember what I really want–which is to continue reaching every day, every hour, every minute with 100% of my being toward Infinite Love and Light.
And…I’m not sure if gratitude does that, but I’m going to treat this like an experiment to find out.

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Tomorrow is the commitment and dedication! Then we start the 40-days of contemplation. Remember with this Journey  to get out your crayons, markers, pencils, and get ready to draw/create. Gratitude is especially pre-disposed toward the right/creative/aesthetic brain.

 

 

 

Feeling the Essence: Journey of Peace 2017– Day 14

susanwithpearls Be who you are, Beauty, Cause & Effect, Enlightenment, God, Love, Peace , ,
Copyright Tam Black 2017
for susanwithpearls

Guiding Thought

You are fulfilled! You are filled to the utmost capacity! You embody All that Is. You are beyond complete! Accept and receive the beautiful gift of Life, and Know the perfection of the Love You Are. In gratitude, share this Love with All that Is.

Reflection

I had to really think about who it was saying these words to me. I thought it might be my guardian angel…but that didn’t feel right; I thought it might be a different angel, but that didn’t feel right; I thought it might be any number of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, or Beings of Light I speak with fairly regularly, but none of those felt right. Finally, I understood it to be what is known as the higher self, the Soul, or the I AM Presence–whatever you call it, it is that part of you that connects you with God, with All that Is, with All of Life. It’s the part who knows your deepest, truest, highest, Love Self. It’s the part of you which mediates between your “me” personality and your Love-Oneness. It’s that part of me that Knows that part of you, the Divinity within.

I found it was a lot easier to hear (as in receive and accept) the words when I understood that the One saying the words to me knew what It was talking about. I trusted the truth of the words, because I trusted the source.

That’s the point of shifting perspective in this round: when you receive the words from a source you trust, it’s less likely you’ll reject them; if you are the one giving the words (i.e., you are the “teacher”), then you become the trusted source–and you would have to trust yourself then, wouldn’t you?

I felt confident being told You are fulfilled! You are filled to the utmost capacity! You embody All that Is. You are beyond complete!, though I did not feel it.

I’d like to pause a moment and talk about that feeling it thing.

I’ve been understanding the role of feeling it more and more. I’ve been understanding why feeling it is so important.

As a species, humanity is moving into this feeling it part of our nature. This is why you are seeing so much in the culture about the flow, about mindfulness, about “the power of now”. These things all contribute to our ability to feel it. Feeling it is more than intuition, it’s more than a “gut feeling”, it’s more than flow, it’s more than awareness/mindfullness. Feeling it is the instantaneous understanding of the essence behind the words. The essence is Oneness. Feeling it is direct communication with the part of you that connects you to All, and receiving a snapshot of insight into a sliver of Everything. For a moment, you just know, and you just know that you just know. But it’s not an intellectual knowing, it’s a feeling knowing. You just know. The more of these experiences you have, the more you trust them.

When I read the Guiding Thought–and hopefully when you do, too–I approach it from two levels: my mind/intellect and my essence. I use my mind to think about the meaning and application of the words, for example I ask things like, “what is the definition of ‘complete'”? “When have I been fulfilled in practical ways”? “What can I do right now to ‘accept and receive the gift of Life'”? In other words, I engage my brain and give it a platform for contributing to the conversation. Granted, in doing so, I give it an opportunity to object, to be obstinate, to contradict me, to argue, to throw a tantrum (sometimes it does!). And that’s ok. I want to hear my own objections. I want to know where I reject the Guiding Thought: those are the places that need help understanding, and eventually moving to a new (“higher”) place.

The second level is seeking the essence. I often use the words “beyond the words” or “behind the words” to describe what I mean by essence. Just today, I came across this from the Kena Upanishad (1:6): What the mind cannot comprehend, but what constitutes the mind, know that alone to be God. What speech (or words) cannot reveal, but what reveals the speech, know that alone to be God.

More and more, I’ve been working on retaining in my thoughts, “All this is God”. If you believe in God, you probably have somewhere in your background an understanding that “God is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent”. “All this is God” sums that up for me. Everything I see, think, smell, touch, taste, hear, feel, remember, know, believe….everything is God. God is the essence of All.

The essence beyond or behind the words is God; God is what is being revealed in every moment, in every word. It’s up to us to seek the revelation, to seek the essence. God is everywhere.

There is a part of you that knows itself as that expression of the Divine. If you begin to listen to that part of you, the part of you that connects you with your own essence, and the essence of All, there is a shift in how you understand every person, every interaction, and every thing. You begin to feel that connection; you begin to experience Oneness, and the Love that is the essence of All.

 

 

 

Immediate Insight (thank You!): Journey of Creation – Day 29

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Copyright Tam Black 2017
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Guiding Thought

In the Light of Truth, perceptions and non-reality dissipate as fog in the sun. Only Truth is True. When we are aware of our reality in Truth, we understand how flimsy and meaningless are our perceptions. Only the Oneness of the Knowledge of Truth brings Peace.

Reflection

What does this have to do with creation? was the first thought of my contemplation. I mean…there’s nothing in this Guiding Thought that says anything about creation, or its process.

But it must have something to do with it.

Questioning the validity of the Guiding Thought can only bring greater insights. Ask and ye shall find. Or, is that seek and ye shall receive? Either way…the seeking and asking opens doors, and allows new light to shine into the mind’s ignorance.

Ah! Maybe that’s it today: a ray of Truth, opening my mind, dissipating my illusions, simply by asking.

Ahhhh…yes. Here’s why this matters for creation: Who wants to create non-reality? What good is something that is not real? Why waste my time putting my energy into “creating” something that, in Truth, is flimsy and meaningless?

What this is saying is: begin to recognize those things you create that have their Source in Truth. Begin to recognize your state of being, as you create those things that have their Source in Truth. You will find your state of being during these times as closer to Oneness; you will recognize things you create in this state will bring closer to Peace.

Contrariwise, begin to recognize as you (mis)create through states of illusion or (mis)perception. Begin to recognize your state of mind (your thoughts/feelings/perceptions), as you (mis)create out of a belief in dis-unity, division, otherness, discrete beingness. Begin to notice how your experience of life compares in this state, to creating while in a state of Oneness.

Test. Obtain results. Observe. That’s all you need to do for now. You will be drawn naturally to the peace, ease, flow, and beauty that you create in Oneness…and you will begin to do it effortlessly.

The reality within: Journey of Courage 2017 – Day 020

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Inner mindfulness is not like outer mindfulness, but there is a whole reality in there to give attention and awareness to.

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Copyright Tam Black 2015
Designed for susanwithpearls.com

Guiding Thought

Be aware, allow, accept What Is. Go within to your silent Self which Knows and follow your Inner Wisdom to Truth. Practice Divine Balance in thought, word, and action. You Are! You Are your Self! You Are your Self of Love!

Reflection

It used to be that when I thought, “What is?”, I would look around, notice, and acknowledge the various things hitting my senses. What is? I am sitting in a blue chair; I feel my bum and thighs in the seat; I feel the arches of my feet stretched from having my toes on the base… What is? I feel the breath move through my nasal cavity. I feel it expand my lungs, and when I breathe deeply enough, I feel my diaphragm…What is? I see the candle, with a flame sitting on a shelf; I smell it’s fresh scent…etc. This is a version of mindfulness: relaxing and noticing the experience, in sort of a slow-motion awareness.

Is refers to existence, so a synonymous question might be, What exists or What is real? When I ask What is of my senses, my senses return that answer, and I am shown the variety of sensory stimuli that I might otherwise not have noticed, and certainly not with as much attention or awareness.

Today’s practice leads me a different direction–within. What is within?  What exists within? What is real within?

I am less-well practiced at having my attention and awareness on the what is within.  With today’s practice, I have a guide: my silent Self which Knows.

It’s not like I can just look around and describe what I “see”. I must feel. Describing what I feel, then seems to take me away from the feeling itself, so it’s almost counter-productive to try to be mindful of what I feel within. It’s better just to feel it, let it be.

What is the reality within? What is the Truth of my existence within? When I ask What is of my inner Self, I may not understand it, but I know that answers are being returned. The questions alone bring me the reality of me: I am! I am my Self! I am my Self of Love!