My puppy Bodhi has the courage to Love you and lick you!
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It’s a new moon and time for setting new intentions. I have an intention to be courageous in Love.
One of the great privileges I have in my ministry is that I get to have 1 on 1 conversations with the brave souls who are in my year-long Masterful Living Course. I’ve been talking with many of them lately and I am so inspired by their courage.
On the surface, it might not seem as though it takes much bravery to participate in a spiritual class, but anyone on the awakening path knows that there are times, every day, when we’re given the opportunity to make a loving choice and it doesn’t feel comfortable. Together we, as a community, make a commitment to relinquish our judgments and opinions, our criticisms and complaints, in order to speak honestly and openly.
We give each other the space to say how we REALLY feel and share what we’re REALLY going through and not put some kind of glossy spiritual spin on it pretending to convince ourselves it’s all good when we don’t really believe it. We’re choosing to keep it real with each other. And that’s what Love is. We’re practicing our holy relationships, intimate relationships, healing relationships with each other in a safe space without judgment so we can take the training wheels off in our relationships with family, friends and co-workers.
In order for any of us to actually awaken to our true identity as perfect Love we have to be willing to bravely look within … and take out the trash! It’s so life-changing when we can stop identifying with the trash thoughts we’ve collected and actually give them to Spirit for healing.
It takes courage to look above the battleground of our stinkin’ thinkin’ and hold a vision of Love for our lives.
One of the things I love so much about A Course in Miracles is that it tells us, “You want to be happy. You want peace. You do not have them now, because your mind is totally undisciplined, and you cannot distinguish between joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, love and fear. You are now learning how to tell them apart. And great indeed will be your reward. Your decision to see is all that vision requires. What you want is yours. Do not mistake the little effort that is asked of you for an indication that our goal is of little worth.” Lesson 20 I am determined to see.
It’s hard to believe that such a great reward comes from the decision to have vision, yet the decision is required. I meet so many people who believe, often in secret, that they don’t have what it takes to be happy, successful, loving, and Joy-full. Their secret belief is running their life. They don’t even see that they can decide to have a different life.
Admitting it to ourselves is a big first step. It’s like with being addicted to something. A first step in healing is to admit that you are feeling out of control and addicted. Admitting that your thoughts and behaviors are compulsive and you feel unable to stop yourself opens the door to the possibility of healing. Without that willingness to look at the shadow, we can stay stuck for a very long time.
A Course in Miracles tells us that it’s a mind-training system to help us recognize that where there’s a shadow, there’s something in our mind that’s blocking the light, and we can give it to the Higher Holy Spirit Self to do the heavy lifting. But if we won’t admit to ourselves that we’ve got this challenge, will we ever actually be available to the healing? Will we be stuck for lifetimes looking at the darkness instead of the light?
We know we’re not open to healing when we blame anyone else for how we feel. We are a closed door, like a bank vault hiding a treasure, when we’re blaming and complaining. There’s no healing happening until we’re willing to take responsibility. Taking responsibility for the way we feel, the mess we made, the things we did and said – 100% responsibility with 0% blame is often an act of bravery so potent that it will literally begin to transform our life onto a path of healing that is miraculous. I see it all the time.
We’re getting ready to do a Stop Playing Small Retreat and people are already realizing that they’re going to need to have some courage to do this work of miraculous healing. Doing it together is so much easier and that’s why I love when we can gather in a circle in any way shape or form. Being the two or more who are gathered gives us the opportunity to realize we’re not the only ones who feel the way we do.
Realizing “I’m not the only one” is one of the major aha’s that people have in my classes. They start to realize that many people feel the way they do. And some of them are willing to go first to share, to heal, to change their minds.
There was a long period in my life where I felt helpless and hopeless a lot of the time, but I couldn’t admit it to anyone. I buried it deep because I so firmly believed it was completely impossible to have a healing. Fortunately, it felt so awful, I couldn’t take it anymore and I finally decided to stop depending on my own strength to heal and I invoked the Higher Holy Spirit Self to do the heavy lifting. I made the decision to stop punishing myself and go for it.
During this time, every day I connect with someone who is feeling deeply challenged and looking to find the courage to not give up and they’re reaching out to me. And almost every day I hear from someone who has found the courage to choose a new thought and they’re having a miraculous healing. And we’re all one, all on the same journey.
If you’ve been a hoarder of complaints, opinions, judgments and criticism along with a collection of resentments and regrets that you’re now ready to get rid of, stop thinking that you have to do it yourself, because you really cannot do it that way. Give it to Spirit and be willing to be willing to have a healing.
Your demonstration of willingness is an act of courage.
There’s no big or small about it.
The tiniest bit of willingness is an act of courage.
Just saying “yes” to healing is an act of courage. Be willing to tell Spirit each day “I AM willing to have a healing” and see what Spirit provides. Have the courage to accept and allow the healing. I’m consistently amazed at the active bravery of spiritual students who are willing to look within, face their perceptions and release them to be healed!
Whenever you’re feeling upset in anyway, it’s your golden opportunity to choose healing. Have the courage to go for it – be willing to allow a pause before you choose.
