Learning the Lesson

Growth, Healing, Life 0

People say everything happens for a reason and God has a Plan for it all.  I believe things do happen for a reason.  And God does have a Plan.  But if we don’t learn the lesson from the circumstance and let ourselves completely heal from it — whether it is in the past or today — the things that happen for a reason will just keep happening over and over again.  And we’ll end up on a talk show talking about what keeps happening to us and wondering why.

— Melody Beattie, Playing It By Heart, p. 244-245

A Surprise Gift

Letting Go, Life, Relationships 0

If others do change because of something we said or did, which sometimes happens, we feel validated and this validation boosts our self-confidence.  Unfortunately, it also encourages us to repeat our behavior relentlessly.  Face it.  Others change only because they want to.  Not because we want them to.

So why do we incessantly try to do the impossible?  After years of observation, coupled with my own unyielding commitment to changing this behavior in myself, I have concluded that we attempt to control as a way of quelling the threat we feel when our companions have opinions or attitudes or behaviors that differ from our own.  The greater the threat, the more we try to control.

But what we discover when we give up trying to control everybody and everything is that we suddenly have the time and opportunity to learn and change and grow within ourselves, so that we can progress to the next level of spiritual awareness that awaits us.

A surprise benefit, too, is that by letting go, moving on, and living our own lives peacefully and with intention, we often inspire others to change in the very ways we want them to change.  Ironic, isn’t it?…

Being powerless over others is one of the best gifts we have been given on this journey.  Trust me.  You will be grateful, in time.

— Karen Casey, Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow, p. 66-68

Power

Growth, Healing, Letting Go, Life 0

Sometimes, I forget things that I know.  Sometimes I forget that letting go has more power than holding on, and then I forget to let go.  Sometimes I get so focused on the other person and what they need and want that I forget how I feel, what’s important to me, and what I need and want too.  Sometimes I forget that no matter what situation I find myself in, I do have powers available to me, even when I feel overpowered.  I have the power to think, to feel, to pray for guidance, the power to let go, and take care of myself no matter what’s coming down on my head.  And sometimes I forget that the temporary hit of power from drama addiction wanes in comparison to the real power we can connect to when we’re at peace with the world, and with ourselves.

— Melody Beattie, Playing It by Heart, p. 242-243

Grateful for the Lessons

Gratitude, Growth, Letting Go 0

We even want to be grateful for the lessons we have.  Don’t run from the lessons; they are little packages of treasure that have been given to us.  As we learn from them, our lives change for the better.  I now rejoice whenever I see another portion of the dark side of myself.  I know that it means that I am ready to let go of something that has been hindering my life.  I say, “Thank you for showing me this, so I can heal it and move on.”  So, whether the lesson is a “problem” that has cropped up, or an opportunity to see an old, negative pattern within us that it is time to let go of, rejoice!

— Louise L. Hay, Gratitude: A Way of Life, p. 4-5

The Stories of Our Lives

Gratitude, Healing, Joy, Life 0

However God may choose to evaluate our lives, whatever memory of our past we shall have in heaven, we know this:  It will only contribute to our joy.  We will read our story by the light of redemption and see how God has used both the good and the bad, the sorrow and the gladness for our welfare and his glory.  With the assurance of total forgiveness we will be free to know ourselves fully, walking again through the seasons of life to linger over the cherished moments and stand in awe at God’s grace for the moments we have tried so hard to forget.  Our gratitude and awe will swell into worship of a Lover so strong and kind as to make us fully his own.

— Brent Curtis & John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, p. 190-191

Dare to Be Enriched

Joy, Life 0

Being open to the flow of abundance will not eliminate pain from your life.  It won’t instantly make you wealthy.  It won’t even guarantee that people will come to your parties.  What it will do is reinstate you at the center of your own life.  Being open to the flow of abundance will sustain your capacity to greet whatever comes your way, as you dare to be enriched by it.

— Victoria Castle, The Trance of Scarcity, p. 87

Better Late Than Never

Forgiveness, Growth, Life 0

As we renew our commitment to the processes of life, then the processes of life will recommit to us.  We’ll feel forgiven for a past that wasn’t all it should have been when we commit to a future that is all that it can, should, and will be — now that we’ve finally grown up.

The prodigal son did get home late, having partied hard, but his father rejoiced to see him.  And so does ours.

Wherever you’ve been, and whatever you’ve done so far, your entire life was building up to this moment.  Now is the time to burst forth into your greatness — a greatness you could never have achieved without going through exactly the things you’ve gone through.  Everything you’ve experienced was grist for the mill by which you become who you are.  As low as you might have descended, in God there are no limits to how high you can go now.  It is not too late.  You are not to old.  You are right on time.  And you are better than you know.

— Marianne Williamson, The Age of Miracles, p. 9

Their Own Choices

Letting Go, Relationships 0

Letting other people make their own choices, which might well turn into mistakes, is good for the other people and for us.  If they allow us to choose for them, and we make a choice that isn’t beneficial, we become their excuse for failure.  We become the unwitting scapegoat for whatever goes wrong in their life, a burden we surely don’t want and one that’s not beneficial to our own journey.

— Karen Casey, Change Your Mind and Your Life Will Follow, p. 65

Forgiveness and Illness

Forgiveness, Healing, Letting Go 0

We all have opinions on who was right and who was wrong according to our own perceptions, and we can all find ways to justify our feelings.  We want to punish others for what they did to us; however, we are the ones running the story over and over in our own minds.  It is foolish for us to punish ourselves in the present because someone hurt us in the past.

To release the past, we want to be willing to forgive, even if we don’t know how.  Forgiveness means giving up our hurtful feelings and just letting the whole thing go.  A state of nonforgiveness actually destroys something within ourselves.

No matter what avenue of spirituality you follow you will usually find that forgiveness is an enormous issue at any time, but most particularly when there is an illness.  When we are ill we really need to look around and see who it is we need to forgive.  And usually the very person who we think we will never forgive is the one we need to forgive the most.  Not forgiving someone else doesn’t harm the person in the slightest, but it plays havoc with us.  The issues aren’t theirs; the issues are ours.

The grudges and hurts you feel have to do with forgiving yourself, not someone else.  Affirm that you are totally willing to forgive everyone.  “I am willing to free myself from the past.  I am willing to forgive all those who may have ever harmed me and I forgive myself for having harmed others.”  If you think of anyone who may have harmed you in any way at any point in your life, bless that person with love and release him or her, then dismiss the thought….

If you feel ripped-off by another, know that nobody can take anything from you that is rightfully yours.  If it belongs to you, it will return to you at the right time.  If something doesn’t come back to you, it wasn’t meant to.  You need to accept it and go on with your life.

— Louise L. Hay, The Power Is Within You, p. 89-91