Archive for spiritual journey
A Rampage of Appreciation
Posted by: | CommentsI’m just reading “Ask and It is Given” – the Teachings of Abraham by Esther and Jerry Hicks. I can’t believe that I haven’t read it before!! – I’ve given it to people as a present, I’ve read articles and listened to talks etc, – but somehow I’d never read it. It really is true that everything happens at the right time, and now must be the optimal time for me to read it in its entirety. I am loving it and getting so much from it. It’s so in tune with everything I know to be true for me instinctively and for others that I coach. I’m really happy that I came to a lot of the learnings myself, and now can add to them by this reading and new learning.
The teachings are all about raising your vibrational level – so that you are in alignment with what it is you are asking to receive. This is where a lot of us can get frustrated and feel that the Law of Attraction is not working. We ask – the Universe is doing it’s part to align everything so that we can receive – but we haven’t done the 3rd step - of bringing our aligning our vibration with that which we wish to receive. We are still focussing on the “lack” and what we don’t have, even when we think we are aligning ourselves to receive.
I have often talked and written about how Gratitude can raise your vibrational level – and it definitely does. I love the way that Abraham talks about it in the Chapter on “A Rampage of Appreciation” . He recommends using this when you are feeling relatively good about something and are in one of the higher frequencies already. It can help wherever you are, if you can find anything to appreciate or be grateful for, but it is hard to do that if you are in the depths of despair.
One of the biggest lessons I ever had about my thoughts, and their power and my particular though patterns was at a week long meditation retreat I was on about 10 years ago. I was meditating (or rather sitting in anguish as my mind raced wildly!! – for a lot of the time) - for about 5-6 hours a day, in a beautiful place. After a couple of days, I was sitting in the dining area by myself, as I thought, idly looking around – and then I became aware of my thoughts!!!! They were SO judgemental – every person who walked in I had some comment to make about – some I considered positive, but a lot were negative – things like:
I don’t like that coat
I wouldn’t think someone dressed like that would come to a meditation retreat
They look a bit stuck up
She looks nice
Please don’t sit next to me – I don’t want to talk to you
and on, and on, and on……………… it was never ending! I had to laugh in the end, because it was so obvious.
Ever since then I have tried to consciously bring my thoughts to a state of appreciation and gratitude more regularly, so that those thoughts become much more familiar to me, and become my default place to go to.
In ” Ask and It is Given” I’ve just been reading about the Rampage of Appreciation – and I love the way that it is talked about there. To use any moment you have – like standing in line for something, or being in traffic and gently allowing your thoughts to focus on what they appreciate:
Isn’t it great to be able to get so many things in one place
I’m so happy I have the money to pay for this
The checkout person looks really happy today
What a lovely child with their mother over there
This is much quicker than I thought it would be
etc, etc – anything that you can appreciate about the situation at all.
You can do it for a regular amount of time everyday, or on your spare moments.
I am committing to doing it regularly with my house - we are needing to do some renovations, for for various reasons have been delayed. I have become more and more aware that my thinking is affecting this, as my frustration can run high at times. I know when I am in a state of appreciation and gratitude, things move more smoothly, so I’m committing to becoming more conscious of appreciating the many wonderful things there are to appreciate in my home.
What are of your life could do with some more appreciation? Have fun, finding ways to appreciate what their is to appreciate about it – it’s important to be genuine, and really appreciate the things you say you do, you can’t fake appreciation – but you change shift your focus to what you appreciate.
Spiritual Prosperity -Can You Have it Without Being Wealthy?
Posted by: | CommentsThe word prosper comes from the Latin word prosperitas,- meaning ”to do well”. It started to become widely used in the Middle Ages, and was generally used to mean – fortunate, successful, agreeable to one’s wishes.
To me it means a sense of well – being, of being deeply grateful for everything in my life. This means people – my friends and family, the beauty of nature and everything around me, the opportunities and possibilities that I have, the animals in my life, the food everything.
Is this dependent on having money?
To me, it is helped by knowing that my basic needs are met – not my wants, my needs. To know that I have food, water, shelter and clothing. I have been really lucky, and only had those basic things threatened a few times in my life, and each time, I was amazed by the help and support I received.I never believed that they would last, because I was born into a society and family that gave me the basis on which to believe that these would be provided,However, I do think that to live in a constant state of insecurity around having your basic needs met would not be easy to cope with.
We have all seen the joy on children’s faces living in India and Africa – where materially children people don’t have so much. I think everyone is struck by those looks of pure joy – and we realise that we don’t see them so often on our children’s faces in the West, when there is so much focus placed on our “wants”. Children are taught at a young age that there is always something else to want.
I don’t mean the look of desperation on the faces of people who are in famine, or war situations and are starving and terrified. I mean the looks on the faces of people who do have sufficient to eat, and are relatively secure.
So to me – if my needs are met and my wants are few, I really do feel prosperous. I feel connected to my Spirit and deeply grateful for everything that I have. When I feel that way, I can sit and watch the birds flying to and fro from the tree outside my office window for ages, and feel so prosperous.
I can feel when I am being pulled away from this sense of spiritual well-being, or prosperity. There is nearly always an increase in my wants – whether it is for material things, affection, food or whatever. I know I have gone from being grateful to what I have, to wanting what I don’t have. Re-connecting myself with that deep sense of gratitude always brings me back to Prosperity.
The best way I have found to really feel the gratitude is to take one thing in my life and really focus on everything I am grateful for about it.
For instance if I think of the bottle of water I have by my side now – I am grateful for:
the water that quenches my thirst
the filter I have in my home that purifies it
the people that made the filter – and all of the parts on it
the person who took the time to put a video up to show how to instal the filter
God for bringing the rain
the people who collect the water in the reservoirs
the people who invented ways of bringing water into our houses – at the turn of a tap!
and more and more and more……..
When I am feeling this grateful, I always know that I am vibrating at a level, that is bound to attract just the right things for me to prosper into my life.
