In-lightened Enterprises - Midlife Blog

According to the Declaration of Independence, we have been given certain unalienable rights by our creator, and we get to choose how we will use these rights.

Barbara Marx Hubbard, futurist, author and dear friend of mine, rewrote a line from the Declaration of Independence where she states, enlarging Thomas Jefferson’s great statement to say, “We hold these truths to be self-evident. All people are born creative, endowed by our Creator with the inalienable right to realize our creativity, for the good
of ourselves and the world.”

That is true freedom. So – Freedom, as a Quality of God is about our ability to make choices and that’s what the Law of Attraction is all about.

When it’s put that way, who doesn’t want freedom? How come we are not living in
total freedom all the time. And yet, most of us reject the gift of FREEDOM because along with it comes RESPONSIBILITY!

Freedom does not mean the right to do whatever one wants. Freedom is not license! Freedom also doesn’t mean free from consequences. That’s what we don’t like about the law. There’s no sin, there are only actions and their consequences. Often rather than accept responsibility for our consequences, we claim actually not to be free. Most of us say, “I didn’t have a choice.” How many times do you hear yourself say that? Isn’t that interesting? Who does? Who chooses your life? Who chooses the things that are happening? Is it someone else out there? It’s so amazing. I remember Stephen Covey at a seminar telling a story about a student coming to him and saying, I’m in this tennis final and I have to miss the last class. And Stephen Covey said, “You HAVE to?” And the student said, ‘Yes, I have no choice. I’m in these finals.” And Covey worked with him until this young boy could say, “I’m choosing to go to these finals instead of coming to class.” And when he said that, Covey said, “Of course, go to the finals.”

If anywhere in my life I still think that someone else or something else is the CAUSE of anything, I’m abdicating the very gift of the Universe/Life/Universe/Life/God that makes me as human – the quality of Universe/Life/God that makes us most like Universe/Life/God – our FREEDOM.

When we are speaking of Freedom as Universe/Life/God’s quality, we are primarily talking about the gift of free will. Free will is a basic right bestowed upon us by our creator so that we can learn to be co-creators. We don’t ever create anything. We don’t create out of nothing. Only Universe/Life/God creates out of nothing. But, it is in co-creation with Universe/Life/God that everything comes into being. So, because we have this right, we should use it, take advantage of the precious gift that it is.

If you had purchased or was given a ticket to a BUFFET, you would then have the right to take from this buffet whatever you would choose to take. You paid your $9.95 and that then, gave you the right to eat whatever you choose. Would you sit down and complain that you didn’t get any dessert, or salad, or something that you chose? Not if you are thinking at all. You would get up and go get it. We spend a lot of our lives complaining because things aren’t the way we want them to be. But, we’ve already been given the whole gift, to make the choices that we make and then, we say, it’s not happening. It must be something else out there.

There’s been a lot written today on the Law of Attraction.  Many years ago, Ernest Holmes - in The Science of Mind told us how to put that law into daily practice:

“Take time every day to see your life as you wish it to be, to make a mental picture of your ideal. Pass the picture over to the Law and go about your business, with a calm assurance that on the inner side of life something is taking place.  There should not be any sense of hurry or worry about this, just a calm, peaceful sense of reality. “

Focus EVERYDAY - see yourself exhibiting that quality more - what would it look like.   Of course this focus works for material things as well. Eg. A student of mine went around for months showing everyone the picture of her new Gold Lexus convertible and sure enough, her husband, who had never bought her anything (he usually just gave her money) – went out and surprised her for her birthday with – yes, you guessed it, the Gold Lexus convertible! There is  power of in visualization!

Many of us think we already are focusing on what we want and wondering why we aren’t getting it. When this is happening, it is because we have thoughts that we are subconsciously thinking that are stronger than what is conscious.  The trick is to make conscious what you believe - so that if it isn’t serving you, you can decide to change it.
Do you put your attention on the qualities of God, or is your intention on worry, criticism and fear?
There is a self-contained testing kit within you: to test where your attention generally is.

Let me give you the test.  You have nothing to write, only to answer honestly to yourself.
What we are aiming at is a continual space of God - Good or in simple language LOVE.  The fruit of that love is gratitude.
If your thoughts are truly focused on love, on God, - they will express themselves in gratitude.  Ask yourself: Is gratitude your most prevalent feeling throughout the day?
Where do you express your love?  Your spouse or partner?  Your children?  Your boss?  Your company?  Your church?  Your president?  Your country?  Yourself?  Your God?
If you are loving, the fruit of that is a FEELING of being grateful - of gratitude. Gratitude will be the predominant feeling as you move throughout your day.

Now, if your predominant, even though unconscious, thought, is criticism - it will show up in your life as resentment.  Ask yourself honestly: Are resentments your major feeling? What and who do you criticize?  Your spouse or partner?  Your boss? Your children?  Your company?  Your church? Your president? Your country?  Yourself? Your God?
Do you criticize the trivial? - Traffic, prices, the checkout line, the media, the school system? The appearance of others?  The actions of others? Do you ever hear yourself say of yourself, how dumb?  How stupid I am?  - or look at me, I can’t even do…  you fill in the blanks…
If you are critical, the fruit of that criticism is the FEELING of resentment.

So, the test is - where is your attention generally? Does it produce gratitude? or does it produce resentment?  Which feeling do you usually express?
Are you loving — or are you critical?
Great test, isn’t it?  Can you pass it.

IF you find subtle ways you are more in complaint than in joy -  this is no need for further criticism.  This is what we do to ourselves - for example, it’s not a problem if we get rightfully angry at something that happens, but
we get into trouble when we get angry over our getting angry - and start to condemn ourselves.  Our whole purpose in life is to come more and more to love ourselves.
If you don’t yet love yourself enough, you have your work cut out for you for another year.  In what area of your life have you forgotten that you are God?   — take a look for a moment at the list we gave you when you came in….  let’s pause and let Spirit show you the quality IT wants to reveal more of in you this year…

There is no need for becoming something you aren’t yet.  It’s not a matter of achieving more, learning more, getting better.  It’s a matter of simply remembering the TRUTH about ourselves.  We are made in the image and likeness of God.  The qualities that we know are true about God are therefore, also true about us.  We need only to claim them as our own.

Abraham Maslow once gave a final exam to one of his psych classes. There was only one question.  Suppose a self-actualized person came into a party wearing a baseball cap, a pair of jeans and a tee shirt and everyone else at the party was in formal attire – tuxes, gowns.  What would he do?  The students wrote diligently and then when time was up read their answers – things like – He wouldn’t do anything, knowing it was okay to simply be who he was, etc.  Maslow looked at them and said, you have all failed.  The answer to this question can be given in 3 words:  He wouldn’t notice.

That’s a pretty high state of spirituality that we are being called to.  But, until we get there, in all of our relationships, on a daily basis, we need to commit to and practice– FORGIVENESS.

Forgiveness is not something we do because we are beginning to feel better about a situation; it is a choice we make so that we can begin to feel better.

If you carry around a grudge it gets heavy at times.  If you nurse a hurt indefinitely, you come to perceive yourself as wounded; it’s tough to touch others with warmth and affection if are hands are busy bandaging and rebandaging our own wounds.

How do I know I have forgiven someone?  He or she has harmless passage in my mind.

It’s a process – Forgiveness is not like the chicken pox, which has to be dealt with only once.  The act of forgiveness doesn’t bestow sainthood on you. It bestows freedom.

Don’t feel bad if you can’t forgive easily or readily.

Forgiveness is not just an act of will; it must go to the feeling, but it starts with the will.

The bigger & more outrageous the wrong, the more challenging to see the person or ourselves apart from the deed.   This doesn’t mean you can’t heal in the interim!

But something stands in our way of this.  It stands in our way all the time.  After more than 10 years in the ordained ministry, I have come to know something very clearly.  The biggest challenge we face as human beings is not loving ourselves.  It may be disguised as . . .

• comparing ourselves to others and always coming up short; or
• feeling like we never get a break in life; or
• not feeling valuable or valued; or
• thinking we really aren’t supposed to be happy; or
• thinking that nothing we ever do will really be good enough!

If any of these things struck a cord, you are not loving yourself.  Loving yourself is the key to happier and more successful living.  Loving yourself enables others to love you.

“Be sure to love yourself for that’s the only way the world knows how to treat you.” Wake up each morning asking the Spirit of God to show you what it would have you forgive in yourself that day

Go to bed each night with the same questions… go over your day and free yourself so you don’t have to hold on to new limitations.

Think for a moment of a situation that you may not have yet forgiven.  See the situation as an opportunity for healing and for growth. See that the other person involved has revealed to you through his or her actions where there was a wounded spot in you which needed healing.

Sit quietly.  Breathe until you have reached a certain calmness in your mind.  Ask that each person you have wronged step up and tell you his or her complaint.  Hear them out.  Ask them questions to better understand the situation.  Ask their forgiveness. Then let that part of your history go. After you have completed this meditation, ask yourself how you have been harmed by others.  Repeat the process. Continue this practice every day until you feel complete.