| The most important aspect of changing and creating the life you want is learning to connect deeply with yourself and your Source. It is of the utmost importance that you have some daily practice where you nurture, develop and strengthen your connection with god. Some of you have been doing this for years and are well established in a practice of meditation or prayer or other kinds of spiritual practices. Others of you may have tried and not had success or not even tried. It is now time to begin a daily practice if you want to really see the changes you want and achieve the life you want. The key to a successful daily practice is that you actually get some pleasure or satisfaction or reward from it. And this is not always the case especially in the beginning. Sometimes it takes a while to find a method that works best for you. For some it will be a Buddhist or Zen meditation, for some a yoga practice, for some might be New Thought prayer work. There are many, many ways of connecting. If you are finding that you have tried one and it doesn't work, consider your beliefs about this practice and other practices. Perhaps you are taking a narrow view of what is right or wrong, good or bad, so have ruled out a practice that in fact might be very useful. At any rate, most practices will feel a bit like hard work in the beginning. It can be useful just to set a smaller time aside than you would have thought necessary in the beginning, just to make sure you do the practice every day. It is much easier to build a practice than to dive into a full practice from the start. So start with even a minute in the morning, or five or ten minutes before you get out of bed. But start with something and stick to it. Remember that a practice of connecting to Source or Spirit is one of unlearning rather than learning. We are wanting to let go of thoughts and energy blocks that prevent us from experiencing our unity with God. This is not something that we 'do' but something that we 'allow'. We let it happen by letting go. Although this sounds simple it is, in fact, the greatest challenge for anyone starting a spiritual practice. We are trained and learn that we accomplish There are many reasons why you will find it difficult to let go. There are painful emotional memories and traumas that we have sought to put away by distancing ourselves from our true self. Letting go, surrendering puts us back in the realm of these painful memories and feelings. And so we will resist letting go if we have not had support for working through some of these emotional issues. We may need to find some support. It is possible to develop and deepen a practice on our own and work through the kinds of emotional issues that may arise but it is not something that many of us will find very comfortable or understandable. But know this, that the pain and discomfort that we may have avoided over the years is not the overwhelming problem it seemed at the time we decided to detach ourselves from it. We are all stronger now and we have more resources to cope with things that were overwhelming at another stage. And so do not fear what you may face as you deepen your connection with god. What you will find out at the core of your being is that you are loved, you are whole and complete, you are always connected to God and, in fact, any feeling of separation from God is merely an illusion. And any feeling that you are less than pure love itself is also an illusion. Any obstacles that you overcome will have seemed well worth the effort once you know what awaits you. |
