So it's been awhile since I last posted. It's been a busy month or so with moving and life catching up and testing and challenging me in many different ways. This post is going to be a little different as a result. I've found it difficult to write of late with so much on my mind (as inevitably happens) but this little piece gives me some comfort that it will change and the blogs will resume in full force soon enough.
So without further ado.... enjoy the change :)
PERCEPTIONS...
I hear you.
If life were fair then there would be so much in the world that would never have existed. There would be so many things that we’d never have to experience, that we’d never have to witness.
There would be no such thing as pain. No such thing as suffering. No such thing as hate.
There would be no such thing as fear.
If life were fair, this would be heaven.
But as much as we would all like it to be it isn’t. Life can be hell. Life can be unfair. Life can be hard. It can be painful. It can be sad. It can be everything we fear.
Life can be cruel.
Such is the way of things, to see the dark to appreciate the light, to find the light to guide us out of the dark. Life’s great duality, from one to the other and back again.
I hear you.
It would be easier if life were fair, and if not fair, then at least, if life were easier.
Where is the balance? We ask when all seems bleak. When trial after trial tests us blindly and we see dark flashing by time after time after time. Where is the balance in this?
I hear you.
When you plead with those you look to for salvation, for some kind of peace - a break in between the challenges you face.
I hear you.
Now hear me.
When you see the dark flashing by, you never notice the flashes of light in between.
You look at the things that tie you down and trouble you, for the heavy feelings are so much harder to shake. They influence your perception because it is easier to fall than it is to fly.
It is harder to pick yourself up when you are down and climb back to where you stood before.
The little things that make a difference seem insignificant in comparison.
But the little things, they are the world. A hug. A sunrise. A friend. A lover. A moment.
In the dark a flash of light reveals all.
In the light, a flash of dark is a shadow and nothing more.
I hear you but you look away from me.
The light is right here. It is just as powerful, just as prevalent as the dark. It’s all just a matter of focus.
You dwell on the dark.
Now hear me.
It is time to dwell on the light.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The secret ingrediants...
"Patience is a virtue, but it ain't one of mine"... well, not (quite) yet anyway. Despite the fact that I can now (grudgingly) see what they mean when they say patience is a virtue.
I recently had a run in with patience, and I must say it got the better of me. There's nothing more annoying than having to wait when you want to go in guns blaring and DO IT RIGHT NOW!! The problem seems to be that the universe has other ideas on how things should be and what goes on and when. I can talk of faith and manifesting the things that you desire, I have said: Idea / Concept = Thought + Belief (faith) in that thought = Concrete Reality - I left out the secret ingrediants in the formula though - patience (aka time) and the clear communication of what our intentions are.
We all desire things to happen and we can put so much energy into the things that we desire that we forget that in order for these things to come about, the right moment is also needed. We've heard it all before, it'll happen, in good time. It's true. But the killer, is waiting for it to happen, letting go of the concept or idea that we are trying to manifest and allowing it to come into being. There'll come a day perhaps when time will be a concept that doesn't play a part in this - and in some respects, we can bypass time once we have mastered the art of letting go of our desires long enough that the universe can wrap them up to be delivered to us. In the meantime though, patience is of the essence when it comes to what we desire.
What is patience exactly? What do we really mean we we are saying "be patient"? If you look up the word patience it's broken down to mean a state of endurance (or rather relevantly) the character trait of being steadfast. How does this fit in with what we desire? Well, maybe it's the universe's way of testing our resolve. It's lifes way of saying, if you really desire it - then prove it.
It's not that hard really... is it?
The funny thing about waiting, about perservering and being steadfast in what we believe is that over time, we start to question things. The longer we have to wait for something, the more we start questioning our resolve to begin with. When we came out guns blaring to start with, shouting to the world this is what I'm creating for myself, we find that the longer we have to wait for it, the more likely we are to destroy what we are trying to create. I've said before that I can be my own worst enemy, we all can, and when it comes to patience - well this would be my biggest downfall I know.
This is the essence of patience though, it's a test of being steadfast in our resolve in making our desires a reality. When we are putting ourselves out there and creating our desires, we forget that it takes time for things to come about. When we desire something, our instinctive reaction is the need to have it now. We perceive time to be the enemy working against us and as more time passes, it's harder to hold the clear intentions we had in that moment when we said this is what I desire right now! The key to getting around this is to let go of the idea that we've created. If we let go of the idea with clear thoughts and emotions behind what we are trying to make happen, then we are basically letting go of our connection with it and also the opportunity to pick it to pieces before it can happen. When we let it go and stop putting expectations on it, it's like placing an order. We know we'll get it so why worry about it? Why leave ourselves the opportunity to doubt it coming about?
It's a harder thing to master, this letting go of what we desire, because it means letting go of the emotional attachment we have to it - but like a painting, when you create something, there reaches a point where you have to put your paintbrush down and leave well alone. If we don't, we end up trying to perfect something that was perfect as it was. We find that the longer we keep dabbing at it, the more likely we are to spoil the picture.
Moving on to the second secret ingrediant... you'll notice I'm also being careful about how I'm phrasing things...
We all 'want' certain things, we 'want' certain outcomes. When we commit to something we 'want' though, most of the time that's exactly what we get - a 'want' - or rather, we are left 'wanting' that thing. Wanting being that state of longing for something, that we all know and love so much!
When we want something, we are implying that we would like to have this thing that we want and most of the time when we say we want something, that's what we get, that wanting of that thing, but not the thing itself. Let's face it, to want is implying that we don't have it, to be left wanting is to be left without.
I tend to find that when it comes to the things I need, they are all but mine for the taking when I commit to them, the same goes for the things I put my heart into, the things I desire. But the things that I want? Well... that's a whole 'nother ball game, one that leaves me feeling rather empty handed really.
So what then is the difference between want and desire?
It doesn't sound like much, but when we desire something, we are putting our hearts into it. We are saying, this is something I really, really am going to make happen and I'll do anything to get it. We're throwing our hearts into the idea even though it's not something that we need as such, but we are making a commitment to making it happen whole heartedly.
Language is a very powerful tool in this way. Thought and speech are one and the same to the universe - they both express something from deep within ourselves. We've all got the power to create, to manifest - but as with most things in life, clear communication of what we are asking for is the key to making it real.
There's a saying, we don't always get what we want, but we get what we need. Most of the time we don't get what we want, but frustratingly we do get the feeling of wanting it.
When a want becomes a need though, there's a sense of urgency bestowed upon it, your heart goes into your needs as much as it does your desires. The key then is to desire or to need and to use these as your basis when stating your intentions - what your heart goes into, what you do out of love, reaps it's own rewards. It creates something out of nothing.
I stand by what I say when I say it's absurdly simple to have the things we desire. It's our birthright to create these things and well within our power if we can understand how the process works. As I write this I'm almost kicking myself at how it can all come together. We are the creators of our own destinies, the choices we make are ours and ours alone, nothing that happens is ever contrary to that which we create for ourselves. Sometimes we can't see the reasons behind the things that happen until time has passed and we can seperate ourselves from our emotional involvement in the event. Other times we don't see how we could create something that turns out so differently from what we thought.
The reality of it is, if we look at what we have and can seperate ourselves from the situation, we can see exactly why we are where we are and how we got there. Having said that, seeing the situation from this perspective, also gives us the power to create something new out of it. When things happen which we see as being bad it's easy to say why me?! - it's a lot harder to stand back and say what can be gained from it all?
The bottom line in all of this: Be careful what you wish for and always keep an open mind. If you want something, then that's what you'll get - wanting. If you need something, don't give up, have patience, let it go and allow it time to make it happen. If you desire something then put it out there whole heartedly and have faith that it'll happen. If you're not good with patience, then practice letting go - put the paintbrush down and leave it be. What will be will be, all in good time.
Oh and expect the unexpected when it comes to creating your desires - the most insignificant moment can be the one that leads to the reality that creates your dreams....
I recently had a run in with patience, and I must say it got the better of me. There's nothing more annoying than having to wait when you want to go in guns blaring and DO IT RIGHT NOW!! The problem seems to be that the universe has other ideas on how things should be and what goes on and when. I can talk of faith and manifesting the things that you desire, I have said: Idea / Concept = Thought + Belief (faith) in that thought = Concrete Reality - I left out the secret ingrediants in the formula though - patience (aka time) and the clear communication of what our intentions are.
We all desire things to happen and we can put so much energy into the things that we desire that we forget that in order for these things to come about, the right moment is also needed. We've heard it all before, it'll happen, in good time. It's true. But the killer, is waiting for it to happen, letting go of the concept or idea that we are trying to manifest and allowing it to come into being. There'll come a day perhaps when time will be a concept that doesn't play a part in this - and in some respects, we can bypass time once we have mastered the art of letting go of our desires long enough that the universe can wrap them up to be delivered to us. In the meantime though, patience is of the essence when it comes to what we desire.
What is patience exactly? What do we really mean we we are saying "be patient"? If you look up the word patience it's broken down to mean a state of endurance (or rather relevantly) the character trait of being steadfast. How does this fit in with what we desire? Well, maybe it's the universe's way of testing our resolve. It's lifes way of saying, if you really desire it - then prove it.
It's not that hard really... is it?
The funny thing about waiting, about perservering and being steadfast in what we believe is that over time, we start to question things. The longer we have to wait for something, the more we start questioning our resolve to begin with. When we came out guns blaring to start with, shouting to the world this is what I'm creating for myself, we find that the longer we have to wait for it, the more likely we are to destroy what we are trying to create. I've said before that I can be my own worst enemy, we all can, and when it comes to patience - well this would be my biggest downfall I know.
This is the essence of patience though, it's a test of being steadfast in our resolve in making our desires a reality. When we are putting ourselves out there and creating our desires, we forget that it takes time for things to come about. When we desire something, our instinctive reaction is the need to have it now. We perceive time to be the enemy working against us and as more time passes, it's harder to hold the clear intentions we had in that moment when we said this is what I desire right now! The key to getting around this is to let go of the idea that we've created. If we let go of the idea with clear thoughts and emotions behind what we are trying to make happen, then we are basically letting go of our connection with it and also the opportunity to pick it to pieces before it can happen. When we let it go and stop putting expectations on it, it's like placing an order. We know we'll get it so why worry about it? Why leave ourselves the opportunity to doubt it coming about?
It's a harder thing to master, this letting go of what we desire, because it means letting go of the emotional attachment we have to it - but like a painting, when you create something, there reaches a point where you have to put your paintbrush down and leave well alone. If we don't, we end up trying to perfect something that was perfect as it was. We find that the longer we keep dabbing at it, the more likely we are to spoil the picture.
Moving on to the second secret ingrediant... you'll notice I'm also being careful about how I'm phrasing things...
We all 'want' certain things, we 'want' certain outcomes. When we commit to something we 'want' though, most of the time that's exactly what we get - a 'want' - or rather, we are left 'wanting' that thing. Wanting being that state of longing for something, that we all know and love so much!
When we want something, we are implying that we would like to have this thing that we want and most of the time when we say we want something, that's what we get, that wanting of that thing, but not the thing itself. Let's face it, to want is implying that we don't have it, to be left wanting is to be left without.
I tend to find that when it comes to the things I need, they are all but mine for the taking when I commit to them, the same goes for the things I put my heart into, the things I desire. But the things that I want? Well... that's a whole 'nother ball game, one that leaves me feeling rather empty handed really.
So what then is the difference between want and desire?
It doesn't sound like much, but when we desire something, we are putting our hearts into it. We are saying, this is something I really, really am going to make happen and I'll do anything to get it. We're throwing our hearts into the idea even though it's not something that we need as such, but we are making a commitment to making it happen whole heartedly.
Language is a very powerful tool in this way. Thought and speech are one and the same to the universe - they both express something from deep within ourselves. We've all got the power to create, to manifest - but as with most things in life, clear communication of what we are asking for is the key to making it real.
There's a saying, we don't always get what we want, but we get what we need. Most of the time we don't get what we want, but frustratingly we do get the feeling of wanting it.
When a want becomes a need though, there's a sense of urgency bestowed upon it, your heart goes into your needs as much as it does your desires. The key then is to desire or to need and to use these as your basis when stating your intentions - what your heart goes into, what you do out of love, reaps it's own rewards. It creates something out of nothing.
I stand by what I say when I say it's absurdly simple to have the things we desire. It's our birthright to create these things and well within our power if we can understand how the process works. As I write this I'm almost kicking myself at how it can all come together. We are the creators of our own destinies, the choices we make are ours and ours alone, nothing that happens is ever contrary to that which we create for ourselves. Sometimes we can't see the reasons behind the things that happen until time has passed and we can seperate ourselves from our emotional involvement in the event. Other times we don't see how we could create something that turns out so differently from what we thought.
The reality of it is, if we look at what we have and can seperate ourselves from the situation, we can see exactly why we are where we are and how we got there. Having said that, seeing the situation from this perspective, also gives us the power to create something new out of it. When things happen which we see as being bad it's easy to say why me?! - it's a lot harder to stand back and say what can be gained from it all?
The bottom line in all of this: Be careful what you wish for and always keep an open mind. If you want something, then that's what you'll get - wanting. If you need something, don't give up, have patience, let it go and allow it time to make it happen. If you desire something then put it out there whole heartedly and have faith that it'll happen. If you're not good with patience, then practice letting go - put the paintbrush down and leave it be. What will be will be, all in good time.
Oh and expect the unexpected when it comes to creating your desires - the most insignificant moment can be the one that leads to the reality that creates your dreams....
Friday, July 17, 2009
Finding the gift in darkness...
While we all strive to be happy and have a positive attitude in life, we all have moments where things seem to fall apart. When the deeper darker emotions take hold, the roller coaster of life seems to be travelling into the dip as opposed to screaming up the rise the way we'd always like it to be. But the reality of life is this: it's all up and down. There's a certain balance that needs to be maintained - the day is always followed by the night, the light goes hand in hand with the dark.
In these times we often find ourselves crying out for something. We look at the dark that has fallen upon us and it may seem that all is lost, all is woe. Sometimes it's hard to look inside ourselves in those times, to find the spark that we so readily have access to when everything is fine. We forget all the things that buoy us up when things go well, we forget that every situation happens as it's meant to happen, we forget that we are not alone, that all is not lost. We forget that there is a gift in every moment, regardless of the moment.
Life will always have these moments, to say that it is possible to never feel these things, that there will never be another dark moment, is to deny the duality that is the core of everything. If life had no challenges, no downs for our ups, we would have no opportunities to grow, to learn. We don't however, have to become lost in these moments. We can let them flow through us. We can feel them, deal with them, watch them and learn from them as we let them go and let ourselves flow as we process them and keep moving forward once more.
I find that all of my greatest learning is done when I feel I'm at my lowest point. In that moment, at the end of my tether, at the end of my wits, I am confronted with something extremely powerful. Something that reminds me of the power we hold inside ourselves. Many a time I have found myself turning to friends in these moments, when my heart is crying out and the weight of the world seems to pin me on the spot. I find myself asking the regular questions - why this? Why now? Why me? Always why?!
Once I give in to the moment, once I accept what I have been given and where I am, I find that inside of me is a strength that I forget I have. I might question the point of it all. I might question my strength, my will even, to go on. But I find that at the bottom, when I let go of everything in me and give in to the moment, I find I possess a determination and a strength of will that I don't often get a chance to experience. Once I've made the decision to keep fighting, once I let go of the fact that I am in that spot, I find that picking myself up and climbing upwards, out of that moment, is the most powerful thing I can ever do. When I find myself at the bottom, I find freedom. When there is nothing left in me, I remember I still have the most important thing ever given to me - life.
Mind you, I might rant and rave and cry and scream and shout at the world before I decide to climb out of that spot to start with. But in that moment of letting go, when I decide to keep going, to keep fighting, I find the courage in myself to keep trying. It fills my heart with everything I need to go on. It's cleansing as much as it is freeing. When you let everything out and let yourself feel your way through the emotions that brought you there, there is a clarity left behind in the emptiness you feel. It's funny to find that same clarity, that same peace, in the dark as we do in the light but really it makes perfect sense. We only ever find clarity, find peace, in moments of nothingness. When our thoughts stop, when we give in to the moment, whatever the moment, we become one with ourselves. Whether we find that nothingness in our highs or our lows, doesn't matter - clarity and peace is there, waiting for us. In nothingness, we find that we have everything we need.
I know there are less painful and trying ways to find this same peace, nothingness, clarity and willpower than to fall into the depths of these darker moments. It brings me comfort, though, to know that these things will always be there regardless of the moment or the challenge. To know that it is not the ups or downs that matter, but the letting go, the giving in to the moment, wholly and souly, this is what counts. That's where we find we are one with ourselves. If you want to know what it is to BE IN the moment, remember your challenges. Remember that feeling, that point, when all has left you and you are empty of everything, that moment right before you choose to go on. When you have nothing left, when you are one with yourself - you find there a moment of true enlightenment - that moment of nothingness is where we are completely here in the now.
Every experience is a gift. Everything happens for a reason - remember this in the challenges you face, when you are stuck in the depths of the darker emotions.
In the dark when we feel we have nothing, we find we have everything we need. Sometimes though, we need to turn the lights out and sit in the dark for awhile to remember this.
Think of your darker moments then, as opportunities to remind you of all that you have, which is, essentially, everything we seem to be looking for at the time.
xoxo
In these times we often find ourselves crying out for something. We look at the dark that has fallen upon us and it may seem that all is lost, all is woe. Sometimes it's hard to look inside ourselves in those times, to find the spark that we so readily have access to when everything is fine. We forget all the things that buoy us up when things go well, we forget that every situation happens as it's meant to happen, we forget that we are not alone, that all is not lost. We forget that there is a gift in every moment, regardless of the moment.
Life will always have these moments, to say that it is possible to never feel these things, that there will never be another dark moment, is to deny the duality that is the core of everything. If life had no challenges, no downs for our ups, we would have no opportunities to grow, to learn. We don't however, have to become lost in these moments. We can let them flow through us. We can feel them, deal with them, watch them and learn from them as we let them go and let ourselves flow as we process them and keep moving forward once more.
I find that all of my greatest learning is done when I feel I'm at my lowest point. In that moment, at the end of my tether, at the end of my wits, I am confronted with something extremely powerful. Something that reminds me of the power we hold inside ourselves. Many a time I have found myself turning to friends in these moments, when my heart is crying out and the weight of the world seems to pin me on the spot. I find myself asking the regular questions - why this? Why now? Why me? Always why?!
Once I give in to the moment, once I accept what I have been given and where I am, I find that inside of me is a strength that I forget I have. I might question the point of it all. I might question my strength, my will even, to go on. But I find that at the bottom, when I let go of everything in me and give in to the moment, I find I possess a determination and a strength of will that I don't often get a chance to experience. Once I've made the decision to keep fighting, once I let go of the fact that I am in that spot, I find that picking myself up and climbing upwards, out of that moment, is the most powerful thing I can ever do. When I find myself at the bottom, I find freedom. When there is nothing left in me, I remember I still have the most important thing ever given to me - life.
Mind you, I might rant and rave and cry and scream and shout at the world before I decide to climb out of that spot to start with. But in that moment of letting go, when I decide to keep going, to keep fighting, I find the courage in myself to keep trying. It fills my heart with everything I need to go on. It's cleansing as much as it is freeing. When you let everything out and let yourself feel your way through the emotions that brought you there, there is a clarity left behind in the emptiness you feel. It's funny to find that same clarity, that same peace, in the dark as we do in the light but really it makes perfect sense. We only ever find clarity, find peace, in moments of nothingness. When our thoughts stop, when we give in to the moment, whatever the moment, we become one with ourselves. Whether we find that nothingness in our highs or our lows, doesn't matter - clarity and peace is there, waiting for us. In nothingness, we find that we have everything we need.
I know there are less painful and trying ways to find this same peace, nothingness, clarity and willpower than to fall into the depths of these darker moments. It brings me comfort, though, to know that these things will always be there regardless of the moment or the challenge. To know that it is not the ups or downs that matter, but the letting go, the giving in to the moment, wholly and souly, this is what counts. That's where we find we are one with ourselves. If you want to know what it is to BE IN the moment, remember your challenges. Remember that feeling, that point, when all has left you and you are empty of everything, that moment right before you choose to go on. When you have nothing left, when you are one with yourself - you find there a moment of true enlightenment - that moment of nothingness is where we are completely here in the now.
Every experience is a gift. Everything happens for a reason - remember this in the challenges you face, when you are stuck in the depths of the darker emotions.
In the dark when we feel we have nothing, we find we have everything we need. Sometimes though, we need to turn the lights out and sit in the dark for awhile to remember this.
Think of your darker moments then, as opportunities to remind you of all that you have, which is, essentially, everything we seem to be looking for at the time.
xoxo
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Part 2 - Crazy Little Thing Called Love...
Part 2 - Loving With An Open Heart....
For the beautiful gypsy lady....
In the first part I talked of love as a choice, in this part, I want to talk of love as a feeling. Loving with an open heart - unconditional love. Love is one of the most beautiful things in the world. When I say thing, I mean it in the sense that it is it’s own entity. It is not just a thought or a feeling, it’s an action, a living breathing embodiment of the self. It is everything and nothing. It is the be all and end all of all that is good in the world. It is the pure embodiment of unconditional giving, an expression of the soul, of all that we hold sacred in the world. It is the stuff that holds all the good in the world together. It has no boundaries, no expectations, it exists to be for the sake of being, to love for the sake of loving.
Now I may not strike many people as being the best person to be writing of such things, I, like most people, have had my fair share of broken hearts, my fair share of pain and falling off the proverbial bicycle, but I’ve come to realise that love is so much more than what we feel for a specific person. It is the greatest and highest thing we can feel for anything, anyone. It doesn’t take a special person to deserve all the love you have to give but it takes a great amount of courage to love wholly and soully and unconditionally. For all that I seem to have been hurt by love, it is not love that has hurt me, but myself viewing the situation as something that has hurt me. But turning it on it's head, love can't hurt me, it's not an object, it can't stab - it is only how I allow the situation to affect me that it appears to be hurting me. Love itself though? Ahhh love itself only ever feels good.
A very wise friend of mine once said that to love someone, you first have to love yourself. Never a truer thing has ever been said to me. It’s something that I’ve read a thousand times and I can see the wisdom in this. After all, how can you love someone else, let that person into your heart, if you cannot love yourself with the same kind of passion, with the same kind of unconditional giving we would give to another? You can’t. You can try, but ultimately without loving ourselves to begin with, we find that the love we give to another, has boundaries and rules, dictated by how much and how far we are willing to love ourselves.
It might sound strange but think of it this way. If you have a field, and in this field you have explored as far as the eye can see, what of the areas the eye can’t see? You can show another person as much of the field as you are willing to see yourself, but you can’t show them what is beyond, what is in the areas that you cannot see.
Loving yourself is like this, love for it's own sake is like this. If you are only willing to love yourself so far, then the person whom you are sharing your love with, can only see so far too – you’ve never experienced beyond the boundaries yourself, so how can you expect to show this other person what is beyond the boundaries? You must first explore further yourself, in order to show them more...
I’m not the greatest example of loving myself. I have my faults, I know I have my moments where I criticise myself but I strive to push myself beyond those boundaries, I strive to break those boundaires down and open up my heart up. I strive to love myself for all the things I criticise myself about because I know that only then can I open my heart fully and allow other people in. At the end of the day who I am is perfect as is and my likes and dislikes are just reflections, just opinions that don't reflect the true person that I am. If I start building walls about myself, then I trap the love, try and restrain it, shape it, make it something I can control. But the wonderful thing about love is that it knows no bounds.
But how do you love yourself? To me it seems a simple thing, though it seems to be a harder thing to master. It is easy to criticise yourself for what you perceive as being imperfections in yourself, but the reality is that we are perfect just as we are! To love yourself is to accept who you are as you are, to let go of any other feelings to the contrary. We see that there may be things that we wish to change but these things make us no less worthy of loving ourselves. We are who we are, love yourself for that reason alone - you need no other reason. We are each our own worst enemy in that way yet it is our choice to take our criticisms and turn them into love of ourselves. We CAN change, we are always changing, if we love ourselves for who we are, knowing we can change if what we see in ourselves is not as we wish to be, then we are a heart beat away from loving ourselves unconditionally, just for being who we are.
Love is an entity of it’s own. When freed with an open heart, it is this wondrous thing that let’s your soul, soar. It is a scary thing, an uncontrollable thing, a thing that frees us when we allow ourselves to open to it, to let it flow and flow with it. When we stop fearing love and start living love, life is unpredictable, our hearts are on our sleeves for all to share and it can be a scary thing to allow ourselves to ride along for the journey – we are out there in the front line and anything can happen. Love, when we feel it, when we experience it, feels safe and warm, effortless and natural – how can anything that feels so good just of it’s own accord, be bad for us?
I see fear as being love’s greatest enemy. Fear makes us close our hearts when we should let go of fear and soar. We are afraid that when we put ourselves out there we will be hurt, because by allowing love in, by letting love flow, by giving love back, we don’t know how the other person will react, we aren't in control of anything but how we put the love out there. We live love feeling this wondrous feeling that enlivens our being, that lifts us up - our hearts are alive and we feel alive.
But where does fear start? Fear usually starts with questions, with our thoughts, when we start questioning love, when we think we are unworthy of love, we allow fear into our hearts, we start placing walls. Love doesn’t want walls, it wants to be free! So we may not put boundaries on ourselves and the love we give, but we start putting expectations on the people we give our love to and that is like building walls in ourselves. We start trying to control love. We say to ourselves, I love this person, but the moment that person does something that hurts us, we pull back. We cut off the love, just a little, or we hold the love back with questions. We protect ourselves – we build walls in fear and it holds love back. Fear is what makes us fall out of love because it closes our hearts.
What if the answer was to love anyway? We know it feels great, this warm feeling in our hearts, our souls, that makes us happy. What if we said you know what? You appear to have hurt me, but I don’t care because pain is a momentary thing, I can let go of it, so I’m going to keep loving because that feels better than the hurt. If we can find it in ourselves to love the moment, for the sake of the moment, to love the person because they are who they are, you’ll find that the fear of being hurt becomes insignificant against the feeling of elation that love brings. If we choose love, we find that the people around us choose love too, we lead by example through the love we show ourselves. If we can let go, if we can show those people around us that we are willing to put ourselves out there, our hearts will open to love and we receive love in return. When we can find the courage and strength in ourselves to love ourselves always as we are and love everyone around us for being exactly as they are, then we become shining beacons of light and love. To do anything less is to put boundaries on our freedom, it restrains our souls when our soul wants to fly! When our souls want to feel the love and be energised by it!
When you think of pain and hurt, when it feels like love has let us down, be honest. Was it really the love that let us down or was it how we viewed the situation? Did the person hurt us or did we allow that person to hurt us? Regardless of how you feel now, did the feeling when you loved feel anything less than beautiful? Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?
I’m a big believer in the laws of attraction and it seems to me that to bring love in, we need to let go of fear and send love out regardless - all the bad in the world stems from fear in one form or another so why give in to it? Love for the sake of loving! Love the moment, whatever the moment, love the situation whatever the situation, love yourself, love everyone and everything regardless and all else will pale in comparison, a shadow is only a shadow because the light doesn't shine there. Love is that light, shine it into the darkest moments and you find they are not so dark after all, love the moment for what it is and the darker feelings will not feel so dark. Let go of what you wish not to keep and hold on to what matters most. Hold on to love, open your heart and let go of fear and you'll realise what it is to be free! To live, to love unconditionally!
Maybe the hippies had it right when they said “choose love, choose life”. After all, when we choose love, we are choosing to live, without holding back! Is there a better alternative?
For the beautiful gypsy lady....
In the first part I talked of love as a choice, in this part, I want to talk of love as a feeling. Loving with an open heart - unconditional love. Love is one of the most beautiful things in the world. When I say thing, I mean it in the sense that it is it’s own entity. It is not just a thought or a feeling, it’s an action, a living breathing embodiment of the self. It is everything and nothing. It is the be all and end all of all that is good in the world. It is the pure embodiment of unconditional giving, an expression of the soul, of all that we hold sacred in the world. It is the stuff that holds all the good in the world together. It has no boundaries, no expectations, it exists to be for the sake of being, to love for the sake of loving.
Now I may not strike many people as being the best person to be writing of such things, I, like most people, have had my fair share of broken hearts, my fair share of pain and falling off the proverbial bicycle, but I’ve come to realise that love is so much more than what we feel for a specific person. It is the greatest and highest thing we can feel for anything, anyone. It doesn’t take a special person to deserve all the love you have to give but it takes a great amount of courage to love wholly and soully and unconditionally. For all that I seem to have been hurt by love, it is not love that has hurt me, but myself viewing the situation as something that has hurt me. But turning it on it's head, love can't hurt me, it's not an object, it can't stab - it is only how I allow the situation to affect me that it appears to be hurting me. Love itself though? Ahhh love itself only ever feels good.
A very wise friend of mine once said that to love someone, you first have to love yourself. Never a truer thing has ever been said to me. It’s something that I’ve read a thousand times and I can see the wisdom in this. After all, how can you love someone else, let that person into your heart, if you cannot love yourself with the same kind of passion, with the same kind of unconditional giving we would give to another? You can’t. You can try, but ultimately without loving ourselves to begin with, we find that the love we give to another, has boundaries and rules, dictated by how much and how far we are willing to love ourselves.
It might sound strange but think of it this way. If you have a field, and in this field you have explored as far as the eye can see, what of the areas the eye can’t see? You can show another person as much of the field as you are willing to see yourself, but you can’t show them what is beyond, what is in the areas that you cannot see.
Loving yourself is like this, love for it's own sake is like this. If you are only willing to love yourself so far, then the person whom you are sharing your love with, can only see so far too – you’ve never experienced beyond the boundaries yourself, so how can you expect to show this other person what is beyond the boundaries? You must first explore further yourself, in order to show them more...
I’m not the greatest example of loving myself. I have my faults, I know I have my moments where I criticise myself but I strive to push myself beyond those boundaries, I strive to break those boundaires down and open up my heart up. I strive to love myself for all the things I criticise myself about because I know that only then can I open my heart fully and allow other people in. At the end of the day who I am is perfect as is and my likes and dislikes are just reflections, just opinions that don't reflect the true person that I am. If I start building walls about myself, then I trap the love, try and restrain it, shape it, make it something I can control. But the wonderful thing about love is that it knows no bounds.
But how do you love yourself? To me it seems a simple thing, though it seems to be a harder thing to master. It is easy to criticise yourself for what you perceive as being imperfections in yourself, but the reality is that we are perfect just as we are! To love yourself is to accept who you are as you are, to let go of any other feelings to the contrary. We see that there may be things that we wish to change but these things make us no less worthy of loving ourselves. We are who we are, love yourself for that reason alone - you need no other reason. We are each our own worst enemy in that way yet it is our choice to take our criticisms and turn them into love of ourselves. We CAN change, we are always changing, if we love ourselves for who we are, knowing we can change if what we see in ourselves is not as we wish to be, then we are a heart beat away from loving ourselves unconditionally, just for being who we are.
Love is an entity of it’s own. When freed with an open heart, it is this wondrous thing that let’s your soul, soar. It is a scary thing, an uncontrollable thing, a thing that frees us when we allow ourselves to open to it, to let it flow and flow with it. When we stop fearing love and start living love, life is unpredictable, our hearts are on our sleeves for all to share and it can be a scary thing to allow ourselves to ride along for the journey – we are out there in the front line and anything can happen. Love, when we feel it, when we experience it, feels safe and warm, effortless and natural – how can anything that feels so good just of it’s own accord, be bad for us?
I see fear as being love’s greatest enemy. Fear makes us close our hearts when we should let go of fear and soar. We are afraid that when we put ourselves out there we will be hurt, because by allowing love in, by letting love flow, by giving love back, we don’t know how the other person will react, we aren't in control of anything but how we put the love out there. We live love feeling this wondrous feeling that enlivens our being, that lifts us up - our hearts are alive and we feel alive.
But where does fear start? Fear usually starts with questions, with our thoughts, when we start questioning love, when we think we are unworthy of love, we allow fear into our hearts, we start placing walls. Love doesn’t want walls, it wants to be free! So we may not put boundaries on ourselves and the love we give, but we start putting expectations on the people we give our love to and that is like building walls in ourselves. We start trying to control love. We say to ourselves, I love this person, but the moment that person does something that hurts us, we pull back. We cut off the love, just a little, or we hold the love back with questions. We protect ourselves – we build walls in fear and it holds love back. Fear is what makes us fall out of love because it closes our hearts.
What if the answer was to love anyway? We know it feels great, this warm feeling in our hearts, our souls, that makes us happy. What if we said you know what? You appear to have hurt me, but I don’t care because pain is a momentary thing, I can let go of it, so I’m going to keep loving because that feels better than the hurt. If we can find it in ourselves to love the moment, for the sake of the moment, to love the person because they are who they are, you’ll find that the fear of being hurt becomes insignificant against the feeling of elation that love brings. If we choose love, we find that the people around us choose love too, we lead by example through the love we show ourselves. If we can let go, if we can show those people around us that we are willing to put ourselves out there, our hearts will open to love and we receive love in return. When we can find the courage and strength in ourselves to love ourselves always as we are and love everyone around us for being exactly as they are, then we become shining beacons of light and love. To do anything less is to put boundaries on our freedom, it restrains our souls when our soul wants to fly! When our souls want to feel the love and be energised by it!
When you think of pain and hurt, when it feels like love has let us down, be honest. Was it really the love that let us down or was it how we viewed the situation? Did the person hurt us or did we allow that person to hurt us? Regardless of how you feel now, did the feeling when you loved feel anything less than beautiful? Is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?
I’m a big believer in the laws of attraction and it seems to me that to bring love in, we need to let go of fear and send love out regardless - all the bad in the world stems from fear in one form or another so why give in to it? Love for the sake of loving! Love the moment, whatever the moment, love the situation whatever the situation, love yourself, love everyone and everything regardless and all else will pale in comparison, a shadow is only a shadow because the light doesn't shine there. Love is that light, shine it into the darkest moments and you find they are not so dark after all, love the moment for what it is and the darker feelings will not feel so dark. Let go of what you wish not to keep and hold on to what matters most. Hold on to love, open your heart and let go of fear and you'll realise what it is to be free! To live, to love unconditionally!
Maybe the hippies had it right when they said “choose love, choose life”. After all, when we choose love, we are choosing to live, without holding back! Is there a better alternative?
Friday, July 10, 2009
Part 1 - Crazy Little Thing Called Love...
Part 1 - The embodiment of love: Love as a choice...
Love is one of the most beautiful things in the world. It is the embodiment of all that is good and worthwhile. It is the highest expression of goodness anyone can ever feel for anything, anyone. It is also one of the most misunderstood concepts out there. When people talk of love, they usually talk about being in love, or feeling love for a specific thing or person. But love is so much more than that. That’s what I’m going to explore here in this first part – the greater embodiment love, not just the feeling, but love as an entity in itself, love as a choice.
When you break it all down, there are really only two root emotions to anything. For all that is good, there is love, the ultimate positive experience. For all that is bad, or that we perceive to be bad, you find that the root of this feeling is fear, fear of something.
In the never-ending battle of light and dark, we only make 2 choices. We choose love – in the form of happiness, unconditional giving, and pure goodness in the form of love itself, or we choose fear. Fear in the form of hate or anger or sorrow – any of the darker feelings that haunt us. When we are angry it is because we have viewed a situation as a personal slight against us, instead of accepting and letting go, we hold on to it for fear that there is no other option than to lash out. When we are sad it is because we have given up on the situation, we fear that there is no other choice and hopelessness, sadness settles in. We dare not look to love when we are caught up in these feelings, because to love would be to let everything go, to forgive, to accept what has happened has happened and we cannot change that fact, despite what we have experienced. Sometimes, we don’t want to forgive and let go because to do that would be to say it’s ok for someone to hurt us. Sometimes, we aren’t ready to let go of these things, because holding on, gives us a sense of justice that love does not, sometimes holding on gives us the illusion that it is the right thing to do.
I’m not saying that it’s ok for someone to hurt us, but why would we choose to hold on to the negative emotions, the fear based emotions when they make us feel dark and heavy?
Why would you choose to hold on to the hurt?
When we let go of the hurt, look past what has happened and feel love for the situation, we are accepting that situation as something that can be the greatest learning experience we’ve ever been given. When we choose to forgive and love the person or the experience regardless, we are choosing to be the bigger person, to be the more courageous person. We are choosing to grow from the experience, not wallow in something that is going to do us more harm than good. We are choosing to experience the light, to lift ourselves to something higher, to do the thing that makes us feel good, to experience love!
Love is such a simple thing, though appearances make it appear more complex than it really is. When we love we are saying that whatever has happened doesn’t necessarily have to be the ideal situation, but we are saying: you know what, I don’t agree with what you’ve done but I am accepting the fact that perhaps this is for you to learn from too. When we forgive and let go and send love to that person, we are saying I understand that you had your reasons, and that’s ok, you have to deal with the consequences, I however, choose not to be brought down by your choices. I choose to take what has happened, to look inside myself and do the right thing by myself – to be the embodiment of the good I say I am so passionate about.
Life is about choice.
Everything is a choice.
On the more conventional level of love, society has all these ideas as to what love should be, we say it’s acceptable to love certain people but not others. We build walls to try and shape who we love and what is acceptable to love and when it’s ok to love someone. We say it’s ok for a man to love a woman, but not for a man to love a man or a woman to love a woman. In my world, there is no distinction. Why should I pick and choose who is right for me to love based on what everyone else thinks is acceptable? Love should have no boundaries! It’s a free thing, something that feels fantastically wonderful!! It is my choice, not anyone elses! It concerns me and my world and we should be free to love as we see fit. We should be encouraging people who are perceived to do lesser things, to have done the wrong thing - to open up and love themselves. If a person feels worthy of love, if a person can look beyond themselves and see that there is another option, a better option, then we should be helping everyone to feel these things in themselves. Maybe, just maybe then they’ll see that there is a better option than trying to bring another down to the same level as they are because they themselves feel down or unworthy.
Half the problems in the world stem from issues people have with family and the other half seems to stem from religion because we say if you don’t act a certain way, there is something wrong with you. We say that family loves us for who we are, or God or whomever else we look up to on a spiritual level, loves us for who we are and in the same breath, we go and condemn people for being who they are. If we tried to be the person everyone wanted us to be, we’d be a blubbering heap of confusion, locked up in a room somewhere, trying to sort out our “issues”. It doesn’t take a genius to see how contradictory this is, how counterproductive and confusing this can be to someone who is probably already confused and reaching out to a society that says that they cannot be who they are, that they are not worthy of being loved, of feeling love.
The answer I think is to be true to ourselves and only ourselves and the only way we can achieve this, is to learn to love ourselves for being who we are - to love ourselves and be honest and see what we perceive as our imperfections and work on them if they don’t agree with us. If we choose to love ourselves despite our faults we realise that the only critic who’s opinion matters anything is our own. From there we can go a long way in realising that it is not only ourselves taking this journey, but every other individual on the planet that is in the same boat.
When we realise that we are all the same, we are all trying to sort through our own crap, then we realise that the only person who can really hurt you is you. When you realise this it becomes a lot easier to learn to love everyone for being exactly as they are. By making the highest choice, always choosing to see through loving eyes, we can step back and see things as they are. People don’t ever really hurt us! They may do something that affects us, they might even cause pain, but we are the ones that choose to view the situation as being something that has hurt us. We are the ones that fail to realise that there is probably a reason beyond ourselves that has caused this situation to come about. It’s not a personal slight against us, but the person who created the situation, reaching out in the only way they know how – even if that is by lashing out.
If we choose to love anyway, if we choose to love everyone, if we choose to love everything, every situation, then we are choosing to grow. We are choosing to experience that warm glowing feeling that lights us up from the inside, that draws other people to us because we are sending it out to the world. If we want everything to feel this good all the time, then it is in our power to choose to feel this good EVERY time. It’s not an easy thing to do and sometimes, it takes time to let go and accept what has happened has happened and that, that moment when passed, cannot be changed. But it is still in our power to do so. It is still in our power to choose love, to choose to love. We just have to stand up and be courageous, be different, be the bigger person regardless of what anyone else thinks. When we choose to do this, we choose to live as the creators of our own destinies instead of being driven into the depths of the darker fear based emotions on someone else’s whim.
When we choose love, we choose life. Don’t let anyone tell you who you can and can’t love, it’s your choice, it affects YOUR life and ONLY your life. Choose the option that’s going to make YOU feel good. Cause lets face it – something that feels as good as love does, that doesn’t require any external input or substance or anything but your decision to feel it, cannot possible be bad for you!!
I'm far from from the ideal I speak of above, but the difference between myself and many others is that I realise this. I can see where the choices I make are contradictory to what I speak of and I choose to raise myself up by learning and growing from it all. I'm wearing L plates on this like almost everyone else on the planet, but I know that I have the power in me to choose to be different.
Be honest with yourself, first and foremost and tell me - what would you choose to do?
Me? I'm gonna choose to spread the good stuff.
Love is one of the most beautiful things in the world. It is the embodiment of all that is good and worthwhile. It is the highest expression of goodness anyone can ever feel for anything, anyone. It is also one of the most misunderstood concepts out there. When people talk of love, they usually talk about being in love, or feeling love for a specific thing or person. But love is so much more than that. That’s what I’m going to explore here in this first part – the greater embodiment love, not just the feeling, but love as an entity in itself, love as a choice.
When you break it all down, there are really only two root emotions to anything. For all that is good, there is love, the ultimate positive experience. For all that is bad, or that we perceive to be bad, you find that the root of this feeling is fear, fear of something.
In the never-ending battle of light and dark, we only make 2 choices. We choose love – in the form of happiness, unconditional giving, and pure goodness in the form of love itself, or we choose fear. Fear in the form of hate or anger or sorrow – any of the darker feelings that haunt us. When we are angry it is because we have viewed a situation as a personal slight against us, instead of accepting and letting go, we hold on to it for fear that there is no other option than to lash out. When we are sad it is because we have given up on the situation, we fear that there is no other choice and hopelessness, sadness settles in. We dare not look to love when we are caught up in these feelings, because to love would be to let everything go, to forgive, to accept what has happened has happened and we cannot change that fact, despite what we have experienced. Sometimes, we don’t want to forgive and let go because to do that would be to say it’s ok for someone to hurt us. Sometimes, we aren’t ready to let go of these things, because holding on, gives us a sense of justice that love does not, sometimes holding on gives us the illusion that it is the right thing to do.
I’m not saying that it’s ok for someone to hurt us, but why would we choose to hold on to the negative emotions, the fear based emotions when they make us feel dark and heavy?
Why would you choose to hold on to the hurt?
When we let go of the hurt, look past what has happened and feel love for the situation, we are accepting that situation as something that can be the greatest learning experience we’ve ever been given. When we choose to forgive and love the person or the experience regardless, we are choosing to be the bigger person, to be the more courageous person. We are choosing to grow from the experience, not wallow in something that is going to do us more harm than good. We are choosing to experience the light, to lift ourselves to something higher, to do the thing that makes us feel good, to experience love!
Love is such a simple thing, though appearances make it appear more complex than it really is. When we love we are saying that whatever has happened doesn’t necessarily have to be the ideal situation, but we are saying: you know what, I don’t agree with what you’ve done but I am accepting the fact that perhaps this is for you to learn from too. When we forgive and let go and send love to that person, we are saying I understand that you had your reasons, and that’s ok, you have to deal with the consequences, I however, choose not to be brought down by your choices. I choose to take what has happened, to look inside myself and do the right thing by myself – to be the embodiment of the good I say I am so passionate about.
Life is about choice.
Everything is a choice.
On the more conventional level of love, society has all these ideas as to what love should be, we say it’s acceptable to love certain people but not others. We build walls to try and shape who we love and what is acceptable to love and when it’s ok to love someone. We say it’s ok for a man to love a woman, but not for a man to love a man or a woman to love a woman. In my world, there is no distinction. Why should I pick and choose who is right for me to love based on what everyone else thinks is acceptable? Love should have no boundaries! It’s a free thing, something that feels fantastically wonderful!! It is my choice, not anyone elses! It concerns me and my world and we should be free to love as we see fit. We should be encouraging people who are perceived to do lesser things, to have done the wrong thing - to open up and love themselves. If a person feels worthy of love, if a person can look beyond themselves and see that there is another option, a better option, then we should be helping everyone to feel these things in themselves. Maybe, just maybe then they’ll see that there is a better option than trying to bring another down to the same level as they are because they themselves feel down or unworthy.
Half the problems in the world stem from issues people have with family and the other half seems to stem from religion because we say if you don’t act a certain way, there is something wrong with you. We say that family loves us for who we are, or God or whomever else we look up to on a spiritual level, loves us for who we are and in the same breath, we go and condemn people for being who they are. If we tried to be the person everyone wanted us to be, we’d be a blubbering heap of confusion, locked up in a room somewhere, trying to sort out our “issues”. It doesn’t take a genius to see how contradictory this is, how counterproductive and confusing this can be to someone who is probably already confused and reaching out to a society that says that they cannot be who they are, that they are not worthy of being loved, of feeling love.
The answer I think is to be true to ourselves and only ourselves and the only way we can achieve this, is to learn to love ourselves for being who we are - to love ourselves and be honest and see what we perceive as our imperfections and work on them if they don’t agree with us. If we choose to love ourselves despite our faults we realise that the only critic who’s opinion matters anything is our own. From there we can go a long way in realising that it is not only ourselves taking this journey, but every other individual on the planet that is in the same boat.
When we realise that we are all the same, we are all trying to sort through our own crap, then we realise that the only person who can really hurt you is you. When you realise this it becomes a lot easier to learn to love everyone for being exactly as they are. By making the highest choice, always choosing to see through loving eyes, we can step back and see things as they are. People don’t ever really hurt us! They may do something that affects us, they might even cause pain, but we are the ones that choose to view the situation as being something that has hurt us. We are the ones that fail to realise that there is probably a reason beyond ourselves that has caused this situation to come about. It’s not a personal slight against us, but the person who created the situation, reaching out in the only way they know how – even if that is by lashing out.
If we choose to love anyway, if we choose to love everyone, if we choose to love everything, every situation, then we are choosing to grow. We are choosing to experience that warm glowing feeling that lights us up from the inside, that draws other people to us because we are sending it out to the world. If we want everything to feel this good all the time, then it is in our power to choose to feel this good EVERY time. It’s not an easy thing to do and sometimes, it takes time to let go and accept what has happened has happened and that, that moment when passed, cannot be changed. But it is still in our power to do so. It is still in our power to choose love, to choose to love. We just have to stand up and be courageous, be different, be the bigger person regardless of what anyone else thinks. When we choose to do this, we choose to live as the creators of our own destinies instead of being driven into the depths of the darker fear based emotions on someone else’s whim.
When we choose love, we choose life. Don’t let anyone tell you who you can and can’t love, it’s your choice, it affects YOUR life and ONLY your life. Choose the option that’s going to make YOU feel good. Cause lets face it – something that feels as good as love does, that doesn’t require any external input or substance or anything but your decision to feel it, cannot possible be bad for you!!
I'm far from from the ideal I speak of above, but the difference between myself and many others is that I realise this. I can see where the choices I make are contradictory to what I speak of and I choose to raise myself up by learning and growing from it all. I'm wearing L plates on this like almost everyone else on the planet, but I know that I have the power in me to choose to be different.
Be honest with yourself, first and foremost and tell me - what would you choose to do?
Me? I'm gonna choose to spread the good stuff.
Friday, July 3, 2009
What of the power of faith?
Faith.
It's a term we all throw around at some point but what is faith? What does it do?
We define faith in terms and use words like belief and trust in a person, thing or idea. We imply that when we have faith in something that the thing we have that faith in, that person, that idea, is set in stone. We can imagine no other outcome but what we have faith in holding true, becoming a reality. It's a web that holds the concept we have faith in tightly and sends the message to the universe that we believe without a doubt that it will become a reality.
But where does it come from? What makes the words we utter, the thoughts we think, become this concrete reality we believe so fervidly in?
I'm not dissing faith in anyway, I happen to have a lot of it myself, but it seems such a fickle thing at times. I can have so much faith in something, in an idea, in a concept that my belief in it is unshakeable and I have watched time and time again, the things I have faith in become that reality. Yet at the same time, I can have faith in something so strongly and that thing has not come to pass, somewhere along the way it's fallen apart.
So what is it that marks the difference between the two scenarios? On the surface, the faith seems the same. But is it reallly? Is there something extra in the first instance that makes that reality, that is missing in the second instance?
I think there is.
When we are honest with ourselves, when we break it down and see the truth for what it is, we realise that faith is a powerful tool. But it is only as powerful as the thoughts that hold it in place. All those times that I had such fervid faith in something that came true, my thoughts were unshakeable. There was only one outcome, one belief, one thought in that idea coming true and this here is the key. The underlying thoughts that backed up my faith accepted no other possibility. There were no "what if's" no "but's" in those thoughts whatsoever. Just this blind belief that the concept I had faith in would come to pass.
For the times when the things I had faith in have fallen through, at the end of the day, when I'm sitting here asking myself where it all went wrong I realise that while on the surface I believed fervidly that my faith was unshakeable, underlying (and undermining for that matter) my belief were the questions. On the surface it appeared that it was all going to plan, but I would wonder what if this, what if that and I realised that my faith really wasn't as strong as I'd made it out to be. It's in these moments that I realise that it's not the universe against me, it's not God punishing me, it is me that is my downfall. I only have myself to blame. Such it is with most things, it's not an external force acting against us to bring about our apparent downfall, it is only ourselves. When we are honest, when we stop pointing fingers and look inside, we see that we were questioning the idea all along.
This is true of all things (more on that another time) but more so with faith. Faith can move mountains but only when that faith is unshakeable. I have always believed that what you believe becomes reality. Faith makes that reality. Faith takes the things you believe in and turns it into what you desire. But it can only do that if it is an unquestionable faith, an unquestionable belief. The moment even the tiniest thought questioning your desire comes into play, the web starts to break. First as a tiny hole that can be repaired if the question can be dropped, if you can let go of the worry. But if you start picking at the hole, if you allow the what if's and the but's to keep going, you start breaking apart the idea and it can't become reality. The web no longer holds it tightly in place to become that concrete reality.
So what of faith then? How does it work?
I believe that faith is the tool with which we can create our reality as we see fit. If we can have unquestionable faith in something and leave that in place without questioning what it is that we want, without thinking about whether it's even possible, if it we can leave faith alone and just believe, then even the impossible becomes possible.
Idea / Concept = Thought + Belief (faith) in that thought = Concrete Reality
Absurdly simple really, it's just a pity that the hard part is the belief in the thought.
But if we are honest with ourselves - there are no limits to what you can achieve.
Love and light my people!
The bard.
It's a term we all throw around at some point but what is faith? What does it do?
We define faith in terms and use words like belief and trust in a person, thing or idea. We imply that when we have faith in something that the thing we have that faith in, that person, that idea, is set in stone. We can imagine no other outcome but what we have faith in holding true, becoming a reality. It's a web that holds the concept we have faith in tightly and sends the message to the universe that we believe without a doubt that it will become a reality.
But where does it come from? What makes the words we utter, the thoughts we think, become this concrete reality we believe so fervidly in?
I'm not dissing faith in anyway, I happen to have a lot of it myself, but it seems such a fickle thing at times. I can have so much faith in something, in an idea, in a concept that my belief in it is unshakeable and I have watched time and time again, the things I have faith in become that reality. Yet at the same time, I can have faith in something so strongly and that thing has not come to pass, somewhere along the way it's fallen apart.
So what is it that marks the difference between the two scenarios? On the surface, the faith seems the same. But is it reallly? Is there something extra in the first instance that makes that reality, that is missing in the second instance?
I think there is.
When we are honest with ourselves, when we break it down and see the truth for what it is, we realise that faith is a powerful tool. But it is only as powerful as the thoughts that hold it in place. All those times that I had such fervid faith in something that came true, my thoughts were unshakeable. There was only one outcome, one belief, one thought in that idea coming true and this here is the key. The underlying thoughts that backed up my faith accepted no other possibility. There were no "what if's" no "but's" in those thoughts whatsoever. Just this blind belief that the concept I had faith in would come to pass.
For the times when the things I had faith in have fallen through, at the end of the day, when I'm sitting here asking myself where it all went wrong I realise that while on the surface I believed fervidly that my faith was unshakeable, underlying (and undermining for that matter) my belief were the questions. On the surface it appeared that it was all going to plan, but I would wonder what if this, what if that and I realised that my faith really wasn't as strong as I'd made it out to be. It's in these moments that I realise that it's not the universe against me, it's not God punishing me, it is me that is my downfall. I only have myself to blame. Such it is with most things, it's not an external force acting against us to bring about our apparent downfall, it is only ourselves. When we are honest, when we stop pointing fingers and look inside, we see that we were questioning the idea all along.
This is true of all things (more on that another time) but more so with faith. Faith can move mountains but only when that faith is unshakeable. I have always believed that what you believe becomes reality. Faith makes that reality. Faith takes the things you believe in and turns it into what you desire. But it can only do that if it is an unquestionable faith, an unquestionable belief. The moment even the tiniest thought questioning your desire comes into play, the web starts to break. First as a tiny hole that can be repaired if the question can be dropped, if you can let go of the worry. But if you start picking at the hole, if you allow the what if's and the but's to keep going, you start breaking apart the idea and it can't become reality. The web no longer holds it tightly in place to become that concrete reality.
So what of faith then? How does it work?
I believe that faith is the tool with which we can create our reality as we see fit. If we can have unquestionable faith in something and leave that in place without questioning what it is that we want, without thinking about whether it's even possible, if it we can leave faith alone and just believe, then even the impossible becomes possible.
Idea / Concept = Thought + Belief (faith) in that thought = Concrete Reality
Absurdly simple really, it's just a pity that the hard part is the belief in the thought.
But if we are honest with ourselves - there are no limits to what you can achieve.
Love and light my people!
The bard.
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