The power is in each one of us!
Would you rather be Right or be Happy?
Sometimes you manufacture scenarios and put them in your own way just to prove a point. It is as if you would rather be right than happy. When you catch yourself doing that stop and say, “This unpleasant thought is unnecessary.” Then choose one that feels better.
—Abraham
Would you rather be Right or be Happy?
This thought has always made me laugh, because it is truly a no-brainier to me and and being happy is not mutually exclusive of being right. It does amaze me though how many people will go through life having to be right!
What does it get them, besides high blood pressure and and extreme stress. People get all worked up when their side of a story or their idea is not accepted as the truth. Everybody has an opinion and it is usually true to them. Politics is the perfect example. Each party takes credit for everything good that has taken place in the last ## of years, and blames the other party for everything wrong in those same years.And don’t get me started on what’s going on in this election year and who’s right or just not lying.
See, that’s what I mean. We start to blame. I’ve watched my friends get all worked up because the candidates on the other side are going to destroy the country! If one person in a country of 300 million can actually destroy us in a four year period or less, we’re already in such dire straits that there is no hope.
The truth is though, there is always hope.
The point is, if we would just agree with the person who has to be right or have no opinion , it knocks the wind out of their sails. There is nothing to debate or argue about. Nothing to defuse. And it doesn’t change your belief at all. You still believe X and they still believe Y. You have just allowed them to continue along their path without either antagonizing them or getting yourself all worked up, and it didn’t cost a thing.
Isn’t that so much easier and they don’t have a clue? Of course, if you have to try to win the “battle” by being right, that is your choice. Have at it.
~rev jim
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Ego is…
Our egos don’t have to control us bu,t in fact, they are within us to guide us, to keep us safe from harm and to help us move forward toward whatever goal we may have n the moment.
~rev jim
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Spiritual Growth
In my early 20’s, I walked into a funky, little bookstore on the main street leading to the capitol building in Madison, Wisconsin. I was really missing college and looking for some mind stimulating reading material. “A Handbook to Higher Consciousness” by Ken Keyes, jumped out at me and I decided it was interesting enough to take it home and get a closer look. I soon learned that this was advanced stuff. In fact, I didn’t know anyone who even came close to living like this. I quickly disregarded it because I couldn’t believe that anyone could ever attain such a high state of consciousness. Surely I knew of no one in my circle, which was pretty limited now as I look back. It remained on my bookshelf for another 15 years before I would pick it up again. Having matured some, it now began to make more sense to me. I read it cover to cover hoping that my familiarity with the material would assist me in learning how to live in such a high-minded way. Another 12 or so years later, I picked it up a third time and I finally began to see that it really was possible. This book has truly been a guide and handbook for me…priceless.
Having a fascination with books since my early beginnings and being an avid reader, I was inspired to be a writer. I always knew there was a book in me early on. The only problem is when I decided to sit down and start it, nothing came. I realized I hadn’t had enough experience yet to write about. What I needed was some real life experience and boy did I get it. With that under my belt, and a new way to look at life, I knew it was time. Now I had something to share that would help others who were struggling out there as I had been. Finally, a way of thinking and seeing clearly that could make a difference gave me the inspiration to start. The title, “I Can Do This Thing Called Life and So Can You!” came to me 8 years before the book was published. During that time, the title served me as a mantra and the writing, itself, further reinforced everything I learned, so much so, that now I could pass it on. I wanted to create a book that could provide a lifeline or handbook to others just like Ken Keyes. And so I did!
Guest Post by:
Rev Cath DePalma, Central Florida CSL
www.Spirit-Edu.Com/learn
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What were you thinking?
I sometimes want to say, “What were you thinking?”
Then again sometimes I do say it, and I say to myself, “Oh my God, did I say that out loud?”
I am prone to saying things out loud that I don’t mean to, because I spend so much time in my own company.
I have for a very long time been aware, at least for me, that the things that I think about, that is, the things that I put my attention on, and desire to have in my life, actually do manifest for me. I learned that the hard way actually by dwelling on the thing that I didn’t want. You know how when you worry about something so much that it makes you sick. Or, you are getting ready for a job interview and you’re thinking that you’re not going to get the job. You just know that the other applicants have something going for them that you don’t.
Fact is, they probably did, if you’re thinking that way. They’re probably going into the interview thinking the job is theirs.
Do you see the difference?
I’ve already given the job away to someone else by thinking, “I’m not good enough!” So, what can I do about that? How can I be more competitive in the interview? I can start at home before the interview ever gets started by looking in the mirror and seeing myself in a different light. I can see myself as successful. I can see the job as mine. I can look at myself and tell me, “I am the perfect person for this job.” I can see myself in a new light.
“Everyone else, get behind me! This job is mine!”
In the beginning, the mind tends to revert back to the old mode of lack or inferiority, but if we work on catching ourselves, we can change that negative thought and put ourselves into a place of greater expectations.
We each have a unique gift. Whatever it is we do, we do it a little bit differently than anyone else does it. That unique approach can be a blessing, if we see it in that light. Each one of us has a singular way of doing something. Once we move beyond the protection of our ego, which has a tendency to say “No” or “Don’t do it” to anything it considers risky, which is pretty much everything we might think o doing besides sitting on the couch watching TV, we move beyond the fear of failure, or in spite of the fear of failure, and realize that what was so far out of the box for us, was the right and best thing to do.
It’s funny, how when we get out of our own way, everything unfolds perfectly.
When we’re speaking of ego and moving boldly beyond it, Ralph Waldo Emerson calls it, “getting our bloated nothingness out of the way.” That’s how much our ego thinks of itself.
~jt starke
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You Create Your World
You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
-James Allen
Have you ever noticed in retrospect that the things that have brought you through your journey to where you are right now were of your own making?
Think back to your thoughts leading up to an experience or situation. Did you have reservations as to the outcome of the event? Were you bubbling with expectation of a grand result? Were you blazé as to how the event unfolded?
I know in my life that my thoughts and expectations tend to show up as the out-picturing of my life experiences or are instrumental in the creation of my experiences.
Thoughts create. while they may not create the exact experience, it will tend to create the experience of your dominate thoughts.
Sometimes, in order to have the experience you desire, you need to let go of the how and the why.
When I was a carpenter in Puerto Rico, I gave my crew a task and told them how I wanted it done. They said, “No, that’s not how we don’t it. I tried to insist, but I realized I just had to let go and trust and, it didn’t work, we would do it my way. Suffice it to say, in their environment they’re way worked, and probably more easily than mine. If I hadn’t let go of the idea that my way was the only way, I wouldn’t have achieved the results I did in the time frame of the experience.
I had to let go of the idea that I was right! When I did the universe delivered the expected result.
Works for me! How about you?
~rev jim
Spirit Education
Truth
What is it about truth that seems so difficult to comprehend? Are we afraid that if we speak our truth that we will leave ourselves exposed or open to criticism? Is it that we think we may be caught up in a lie? Or, is it something even deeper?
If we are talking about a universal truth, we are speaking of something that is true for everyone, and many times, even that is subjective. The truth is. Whatever we share is our opinion. It may also be held by others, but invariably it is a version of a truth held by others.
Point: When we speak of God, some people may believe there is no God. Some may believe that it should be a small “g” god.Others believe the only God is that of the Christian God and all others are not the true God. That is true for many in almost all faiths. Some people believe God is a he, others a she, and still others believe God is without sex.
The point is, few agree on who or even what God is.
This leads me to the place where, I can only speak from the truth I know. The truth I speak, I do from my authentic self, and yes, I sometimes leave myself exposed to whatever, but when I do, I never have to worry about whether what I said is the same thing I told someone else. I never have to wonder, “will I get caught in a lie?” While I know my beliefs may have changed, and that what I believe today may not believe what I believed yesterday, I know what my old belief was, so the change isn’t a surprise to me, and I can say “Yes, I used to believe that, but my beliefs have changed.
In the authenticity of my sharing I have accepted responsibility for my beliefs.
Does that make sense?
In The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz speaks of living an “impeccable life,” and this means doing nothing that harms anyone else while at the same time reaching for your highest possibilities of you. Is this the impossible to attain ideal? Not if you make it your truth every day.
Just imagine what the world might be like, if everyone lived an impeccable life!
~ JT Starke http://spirit-edu.com/
#aworldthatworks
Me? Let go of my story?
“Be patient where you sit in the dark, the dawn is coming.” ~ Rumi
Just as the periods between light and dark are cyclical, so to are all things in life. Life as we know it is cyclical as well. we are born with nothing and we pass on from this life with nothing. Life is designed in a cycle that upon renewal, there is no baggage to take with us. Some people take a whole lifetime to realize that, some more than that.
So, this dark and light, what is it? Is it to be feared?I don’t think so. It’s the yin and yang, the beginning and the end, the good and bad. You can’t really experience one without the other. You may be able to minimize the negative effects or the fallout, but you can’t have one without its corresponding polar opposite. Life is a cornucopia of experiences. you sometimes have to wade through all the different possibilities in order to find the experience you’re looking for. You don’t have to dwell on or immerse yourself in the thoughts or experiences that come into your sphere, but you may need to acknowledge them, bless them and release them.
Life is funny. The more you resist or deny the experiences that move through your sphere, the more they persist. If you were to just allow it to present itself and say “no thank you” that thing would just cease to be.
But, then we would have to let go of our story, wouldn’t we?
~jt starke
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Know that ye are Gods?
Jesus tried time. and time again to tell the crowds and his disciples that everyone was like him that each of us has the power to heal, the power to change our lives and the world just by changing our thoughts.
It was so 2,000 years ago and it is so today. There was no magic formula to Jesus’ teachings beyond a willingness on our parts to forgive and be grateful. Of course, it’s more complicated than that in practice, not in its essence. I left out one thing though and it is essential to making any change anywhere, anytime. It is the essence of Jesus teaching,
L-O-V-E!
It was not only the essence of his teaching, but was the essence of his life. He tried to always live from love. And most of the time he was able to do that. He also proved that he was human from time to time like throwing the money changers from the temple and often showing frustration with his disciples.
So, this thing Jesus was teaching us or trying anyway, what was it? It was that if we can be grateful for our life as it is right now even though it may not seem perfect, and if we can forgive ourselves for our mistakes, then we can choose to move into a new idea for our life starting right now.
Of course our story is what has made our life and brought us to this place and time, but is it how we want our life to continue? Does it allow for a new idea to emerge for us? Does our “story” allow us a place to grow from or does it just keep us shackled to our old boring story?
Do we have the courage to make a change or do we want to stay with that which is comfortable even though that comfortable place may actually be painful? Most people don’t have the willingness to make the honest assessment to move beyond the place of stuckness that they are presently in because they don’t believe in themselves. That’s a stark truth and one we often aren’t able to admit.
It can cause great upheaval in ones life to have the courage to just walk away from your past in order to move into a new and greater idea of you. And, it requires a huge leap of faith. Sometimes it can feel like you’re doing a high wire act without a net. But, the net is there. You just can’t see it. It’s the belief that what you’re doing right now, making that move, believing in yourself and the direction you’re going above all the nay-sayer’s comments that makes it happen and carries you through.
I’ve made that leap many times. My first was from banking and a weekly paycheck to being a self-employed carpenter-contractor with little professional carpentry skills and a partner I barely knew on a small island in Rhode Island in the middle of Narragansett Bay. All I knew was, I didn’t want to be a banker anymore, and I loved working with my hands. I never thought I would fail. Then, eighteen years later, I added hot sauce manufacturing to my resume, built a factory in an outbuilding on my property in Puerto Rico and succeeded at that, and then… The list goes on. That’s not the point though. I had faith in myself. I was doing something I loved and because I believed in me and what I was doing, Another reason I succeeded where others failed, was because I didn’t listen to those around who thought I would fail. The power of love manifests itself in your beliefs of what you can or cannot do. By that I mean, if you believe you can succeed at something, then you must have enough love or belief in yourself to do that.
So, I leave you with this question.
Do you believe if you make a change that you will succeed, or do you believe it will fail?
Ultimately, if you believe you’ll fail, you will! If, on the other hand, you believe you will succeed, you will. It’s all in the thought.
What’ll it be?
~ jt starke
Giving Up!
Funny, 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 white canvas can be filled with our most precious thoughts, or 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 your life depends on it. Dreams become reality, and thoughts are things. If you keep your thoughts in alignment 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 and each one of us!
Are you ready to start with a fresh canvas?
~jim starke
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