Category: mindful

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Our Spiritual Nature

Behind your image, below your words, above your thoughts, the silence of another world waits. A world lives within you. No one else can bring you news of this inner world.

~ Anam Ċara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

 

spi-natOur spiritual nature is an inextricable part of us. Yet, while we do not wear it on our sleeve, it does live within us and there is evidence of it all around us. Nature is all spiritual, because it never exists in opposition to the divine. Man is the only creature on earth that tries to defy nature, creating artificial substances and devices in an attempt to “cheat death,” part of the birth-death-rebirth cycle, which is common to all life.

We are the only creatures, that think ourselves to death. Rather than living in a flow, we create blocks of resistance, which cause us to become out of sync with the world around us. We are the only creatures on the planet that don’t give back to the earth in a natural way. We use, abuse, rape and pillage its natural beauty and resources and leave behind refuse that is indigestible and non-renewable.

Yet, if we just looked to the mystical roots of all of our religions or spiritual paths, we would find that if we did the inner work, spent time looking within ourselves, we would find all the answers to living a gloriously, happy life, that isn’t about consumption and destruction. We would find that whatever we do and whoever we are is enough. We would find that we don’t have to keep up with the Joneses, because we have already surpassed them in the only way necessary. We are happy with our life as it is.

When we are in the flow of life, we find that everything we need is already provided for us. Just as all of nature, unobstructed by man, receives everything it needs, we would receive all that we needed and more. The natural ecosystem is a phenomenally complex system, which provides what is necessary for life. When the system is attacked, it makes necessary corrections to bring itself back into alignment.

We can do the same thing with our lives. If we get out of alignment, we can change how we do things or think about things to bring ourselves back into alignment with life, and find ourselves happier, healthier and more energetic.

~rev jim

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Giving Up!

man_with_question_mark.epsFunny, this word never used to be in my vocabulary. It still isn’t in the conventional sense. I have never given up on something I’ve thought was worthwhile. As I think about this, I know that I’ve almost never done something that I didn’t think was worthwhile, for me or someone I was trying to help.

So what has changed? Only the most basic reason, that I am doing it for me, or that I am doing it at all. It used to be when I was doing something I truly thought that it was me doing it. That I was in charge. I believed that it was my intellect that made it happen and I was the Mr. smarty pants that was responsible for all the great ideas. Then I realized that I was part of something greater. I realized that there was something at work here that is without equal in the universe, and it’s all a part of me, a part of all of us really.

There is a power in the universe, no, it is the universe, and it is the infinite source of our good. We can ignore it, or try to, but when we do that it is still there operating in and as us. It is our thoughts, and as we think about things the landscape of our life is being painted for us. The details of how our life unfolds, is pretty much up to us, and how we paint it. The colors we use and the detail we put into it paints a picture of greater and greater clarity.

Sometimes the colors we use don’t work, but luckily our canvas is not indelible, and we can scrape off what doesn’t work, or paint over the old, or better yet, begin with a new canvas. It is totally up to us. We are always supported from within as we fill the canvas of our lives.

We can start with a blank canvas anytime, and this clean canvas can be filled with our most precious thoughts, or our grandest dreams. We can paint this canvas in black and white, allow for shades of gray, or paint it in glorious color. It’s always best to keep it light of course, allowing for great and glorious things to unfold in full, living color. So, pull out that brush, spatula or crayons, and draw yourself a beautiful life. Allow the broad brush strokes of life to move through you in grandiose ways. Paint your thoughts like you life depends on it. Dreams become reality, and thoughts are things. If you keep your thoughts in alignment with with how you want your canvas and your life to look, both will become the masterpiece your mind has painted.

So, give up. Yes, give up on your old thoughts and ideas, if they’re not working for you and know that you are the artist of your life, and your thoughts out-picture as your life. The universe always gives you what you paint. Keep it bright and give it up to the power that resides within you, within each one of us!

~revjim

#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

We’re having a Zoominar September 28th
1st Century Mystics  October 4th
https://spirit-edu.com/learn/courses/zoominar/
https://spirit-edu.com/learn/1st-century-mystics

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Prune the Weeds from Your Garden

In the Grace in Aging, we learn to be more mindful of what we want in our life.

grace9

~revjim

#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online

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On Being Happy

be-happy“Happiness is a contagion which could lead to viral happiness and smiles and actually create peace all around you.” ~jts

Everything in our life is a choice and how we choose determines how we see our life.

Are you happy?

Or, do you wake in the morning and wonder “What’s going to go wrong today?” Do you fear that things that haven’t happened yet will? Do you feel that something bad is going to happen to you, and you don’t even have any reason to feel that way, beyond an offhand comment you heard or a news reporting the radio?

Psychologists refer to F.E.A.R as an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. I love that. It amazes me how often we fall into this mode of thinking, me included. We really limit ourselves when we allow some future “maybe”may occur for us, bad or good, and that our future is totally out of our control. The truth is that most of the things that happen to us are a product of our thinking. If we think the world is basically a dangerous and unloving place, that is what we tend to see. If we believe the world is basically a good and safe place to live, this is what we tend to see.

Can we control everything that happens to us? No. Most of the things that aren’t under our control are remote occurrences and almost silly to think about. The chances of your house burning down, or getting into an accident or most other things are so small that they really are False Evidence Appearing Real. Something like a bombing is astronomically small. They are also external things to us.

Our real control is in our day to day lives, our personal choices. We have virtually 100% control over those. How we eat. Is it healthy? How we spend our money. Do we choose frivolous things we’ll never use? In business, do we make informed choices, or do we see a resurgence of the “pet rock” or “Beanie Babies?”

There are many benefits of choosing to be happy. The first is that smiling not only makes us feel better, it also helps cheer others up. Smiling is contagious. Happiness is a contagion which could lead to viral happiness and smiles and actually create peace all around you. Imagine how much more you might attract into your life by just changing your primary thought to being happy when you wake up n the morning.

I have always, as long as I can remember, woke up and greeted the dawn with a hearty in-breath, a big smile and, most of the time, a statement to the sun, of how grand life is and how blessed I am to be a part of it! I also intentionally interact with people in public and give them a glance and a smile, and sometimes even a quick greeting, if they actually make eye contact with me. In small towns people are more willing to engage you, than they are in the “big city.”

Still, all in all, being happy leads to you wanting to take better care of your body, mind and spirit. Leaving out any one of these things can lead to you, or me, from being in harmony with our own self and lead us into that quagmire of unhappiness and a pronounced frown.

Did you know it takes fewer muscles to smile than to frown. That alone is a good reason to smile.

~revjim

#spirit-edu.com -Spirituality Online
#aworldthatworks
Spirit Education is a CSL Authorized Virtual Education Provider

Grace in Aging class starts September 18th Online