Life Coach Lakeway

Notice each day whether you are choosing to live in fear or love. Fear can keep you disconnected from the loving presence inside of you. Causing fear is a tactic of the ego, whether it be your own ego or the world’s ego. The world’s ego is a reflection of individual ego power and the amount of fear that is active. Fear is present when we forget that we are a part of God’s divine design. Learning to experience authentic love means abandoning ego’s insistence that you have much to fear and that you are in an unfriendly world. You can make the decision to be free from fear and doubt and return to the brilliant light of love that is always with you. Who you really are is that unclouded love.

Here are some ideas for bringing love rather than fear into your life:

• Remind yourself that God created you in perfect love that is changeless and eternal. Your body is changing, as is your mind, so you are not that body or mind. You were created as a spirit that is pure love. That is where you want to keep your attention focused.
• Forgive yourself and welcome love back into your life. When you can do this, a kind of balancing occurs. Rather than atoning for faults with guilt, you are more committed to promoting joy and service. You will begin to do what you originally came here to do.
• Notice the acts of kindness other people do rather than their shortcomings. This is how the loving presence views you. We are all good, decent, loving souls who occasionally get lost. When you can focus on the good in another and hold that in your mind, you are acting from your higher self. This can help dissipate fear and anger.
• Remind yourself of how much you have to give away and of how precious and valuable your giving is. You have the same force running through you that allows the planets to move, the earth to turn, the seeds to sprout, and the flowers to open. There is not a separate God for each person. There is one universal intelligence flowing through all of us.
• Accept that you are enough. When ego begins trying to attract you toward fear, say loudly, “I am enough!” You do not need to be anything you are not. You do not need to prove yourself. You do not need to indulge your ego with fears and to keep your real self at a distance. “I am enough” affirms that you choose to love and chase doubts and fears away.

The poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “If we could read the secret history of our enemies we would find in each man’s sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.”

Harboring anger and hatred toward anyone guarantees that you remain in low energy fields where problems will continue to crop up repeatedly in your life. Try examining every relationship in which you feel judgmental thoughts of anger and hatred. Replace those thoughts with energies of acceptance, kindness, cheerfulness, and love. You will have to make a personal commitment to, first of all, notice what you are feeling and then exercise your ability to choose to send love. When your heart becomes pure, your enemy becomes your friend, or even more significantly, your teacher. Your worst enemies are your greatest teachers because they allow you to examine the emotions of anger and revenge and then to transcend them. They give you the exact tools you need to elevate yourself to the spiritual energies that eliminate problems and provide solutions.

When you send love in response to hate you accomplish one of the most difficult things for anyone. As I look into my conscience I can now honestly say, I have no one who I can call an enemy. Over the course of my life I have been disappointed many times. Some have borrowed and never repaid. Some have forgotten their promises. Some have left me for others. Some have cursed me and spread rumors about me. Some have stolen from me. I send love to them all, mindful of the Buddha’s words: “We live happily indeed, not hating those who hate us. Among men who hate us we dwell free from hatred.” It has been this transformation in my own thinking, perhaps more than anything else, that has allowed me to move out of those low energy problem regions of my life. It is a powerful strategy for raising your spiritual awareness.

In terms of outward appearances there is something noticeable about people who have reached a high level of spiritual awareness. They seem to be in a constant state of bliss. In my own life I know that my state of cheerfulness is a reliable gauge of my level of spiritual enlightenment at that moment.  The more cheerful, happy, contented, and satisfied I am feeling, the more aware I am of my deep connection to Spirit.

Ask yourself this key question, “How do I feel most of the time?” If your answer is that you feel anxious, anguished, hurt, depressed, frustrated, and so on, then you have a spiritual disconnect. This could mean you have allowed your personal energy field to become contaminated by the debilitating forces of low energy around you.

When you are spiritually connected, you are not looking for occasions to be offended and you are not judging and labeling others. You are in a state of grace in which you know you are connected to God and thus free from the effects of anyone or anything external to yourself.

I ask myself, “How am I truly feeling inside?” If my answer is “Not so hot” or “Upset,” I meditate and go to the quiet place where I can plug into my spiritual power source. The state of cheerfulness returns quickly. Every teacher who has been truly significant in my life has demonstrated this wondrous quality of being able to laugh, to take life lightly, to be silly and giddy.

Use this measure to test your own level of spiritual awareness, and if you are not of good cheer remind yourself that you will never be fully satisfied but in Spirit. I love Erich Fromm’s insight, “Man is the only animal that can be bored, that can be disconnected, that can feel evicted from Paradise.” Remember, only you can evict yourself from the garden of paradise.

Quietly communing with God, when we are searching for guidance, is a way of temporarily turning off our ego-mind. Instead of our ego-self thinking, “I can fix this,” we are willing to immerse our perceived problem into our higher self. For those of us who grew up believing life is a “do-it-yourself” project, it can be hard to admit that we need help just to survive. Like a drop of water separated from its source the little mind is unable to create and sustain life. When the drop of water rejoins the ocean it has all the powers of its source. The drop of water separate from its source symbolizes our ego-self when we are separated from our source of omnipotent power.

With our divine connection we are always in touch with the solutions we are seeking. Problems persist when we fail to recognize, realize, and finally, quietly commune with our own source, power, spirit, God.

I think of Abraham Lincoln watching his beloved Union crumbling under the energy of hatred that engulfed this country. He wrote, “I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had no where else to go.”  He is saying, “I surrender to my source and turn this huge problem over to that same power that moves the stars.”  You can do the same thing in times of strife. “Let go and let God,” as they say in the recovery movement.

When you practice communing quietly with spirit, you will sense the presence of a sacred partner. You can turn your problems over to this “senior” partner and move to a place of peace. It’s possible to reach a place where you will rarely revert to the belief that you face insurmountable problems. Eventually, you will learn that all those so-called “problems” are dissolvable by saturating them with the higher energy of spirit.

In a small village not far from Florence, Italy, a thirteenth-century soldier was imprisoned. The son of a rich merchant, this young soldier had been “lost” for most of his life when suddenly he had a vision to serve God in an unconditional way. He gave up all material possessions, ultimately living and teaching the message of Jesus of Nazareth. This was the man who would come to be known as Saint Francis of Assisi. He became renowned for helping many by simply being in their presence. Wild animals and birds became tame near him, meekly tickling his fingers and flying into his open hands.

On a pilgrimage many years ago, I went to Lower Assisi to visit the tiny chapel that Saint Francis had prayed in every day. The chapel still stands in its exact condition from that time. Today it is surrounded by a spacious building with glorious stained glass windows and an ornate ceiling. Thousands of people mill about in this outer structure; all are in Assisi to pray and pay homage to the thirteenth-century saint. The visitors come and go every day from all over the globe, in solemn, somber, loving tribute to this divine being.

I was escorted into the tiny chapel which once was the spiritual meditative home of Saint Francis. I sat down to meditate in this sacred place, and immediately felt bliss and unconditional love entering my energy field. I returned a second day to visit again and confirm how powerful the experience had been and to be certain that it wasn’t just my expectations at work in that chapel. The room radiated unconditional love. It was in the air, so to speak. This little chapel, inside the outer chamber surrounding it, seemed a metaphor for ourselves.  Our body is the outer protective chamber. But deep inside that chamber is a place of perfect harmony and peace, a place to visit often and feel the radiance that abides there.

Here in Lower Assisi is a place where Saint Francis made conscious contact with God, and a place where millions of people have come with love and gratitude to be in the imprint of his energy field. This kind of energy leaves its mark. It remains there to be felt and experienced. Loving radiant energy joyously impacts the energy field of all who enter. In places where spiritual consciousness and unconditional love are practiced, an invisible energy field of grace, beauty, and tenderness remains in the environment.

If you want to be a voice for peace in the world, begin by making peace a permanent condition of your own life. Your higher self knows the way, and all it takes is awareness and a determination to listen to the calling of love, forgiveness, and kindness as you move through your days. Here are a few ideas to think about:

1. You must offer peace to have it. Think of yourself as a peaceful person. Watch out for your ego’s inclination to take offense and ramp up confrontation and disturbance in the lives of others. Try saying, “You are really having a rough day,” to a harried clerk, rather than, “I’ve been waiting for fifteen minutes already.” Let your loving presence, not your ego, guide your words and actions.
2. Remember that grievances bring turmoil while communication brings peace. You can shed grievances by letting go of your own self-absorption and practicing forgiveness. If you are angry toward someone in your life, work at communicating with that person. A few moments of discussion and forgiveness can send the turmoil away and weaken the influence of your anxiety-loving ego.
3. Give yourself the gift of a silent retreat every day. Even if it is only for a few moments, experience this key to higher awareness. Shut down the inner dialogue and see the difference between the constant chatter and the bliss of your silent connection to the Universe. This is the surest way to ease control away from ego and move into the inner vision of peace that is your birthright.
4. Remind yourself that the greatest technique for bringing peace into your life is to always choose being kind when you have a choice between being right or being kind. This is the single most effective method I know for having a sense of peace. And you have that choice in all your interactions.

When your higher self is present, it always promotes peace. If you have a question about whether it is your ego or your higher self speaking, the answer becomes obvious when you ask yourself, “Will this bring peace or turmoil to my life?” Peace is not found in being right or being hurt or being angry. By all means, work toward righting the wrongs you perceive, but do it with an understanding that an angry heart keeps you from knowing God on the path of your sacred quest. Peace will come to you when you a healer rather than a judge.

“It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” This is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s description of the deep nature of relationship between ourselves and our fellow human beings. If you desire peace for others, you’ll receive it. If you want others to feel loved, you’ll be the recipient of love. If you see only beauty and worthiness in others, you’ll have the same returned to you. You’ll only give away what you have in your heart, and attract what you’re giving away. Your impact on others—whether it be strangers, family members, co-workers, or neighbors—is evidence of the strength of your connection to the power of intention. Think of your relationships in terms of holy or unholy.

Holy relationships facilitate the power of intention at a high energy level for everyone involved. Unholy relationships keep the energy at the lower, slower levels for all concerned. You’ll know your own potential for greatness when you start seeing the perfection in all relationships. When you recognize others’ holiness, you’ll treat them as divine expressions of the power of intention, wanting nothing from them. The irony is that they become co-creators manifesting all your desires. Want nothing from them, demand nothing from them, have no expectations for them, and they’ll return this kindness. Demand from them, insist that they please you, judge them as inferior, and see them as servants, and you’ll receive the same. It is in your best interest to be acutely aware of what you truly want for others, and to know whether you’re in a holy or an unholy relationship with every person you’re involved with.

One truth I’ve recognized during the years of my own growth is that it’s impossible to know my perfection if I’m unable to see and honor that same perfection in others. The ability to see yourself as an expression of intention and to see yourself in all of humanity is a characteristic of the holy relationship. It’s the ability to celebrate and honor in all others, the place where we’re all one.