Every week at my Toastmasters club we choose a theme for the meeting. This week the theme was “Mistakes”. With that as our focus, people inadvertently made blunders and one glitch followed another. Fortunately, our overall theme is to always have fun, so the meeting became a comedy of errors with lots of laughter and the enlightening awareness that our focus on mistakes was creating mistakes. One man said, “Imagine if the theme for today had been “Accomplishments.”

We all have themes in our lives, either consciously, unconsciously or both. Fear of making a mistake was an unconscious theme of mine from an early age. In grade school one of my teachers wrote on my report card: “Janet will one day find that it’s a waste of time to worry so much about making a mistake.” It’s not only a waste of time but it causes a whole lot of suffering. That suffering motivated me to consciously cultivate and grow over the years a new theme: “This moment is perfect just as it is.”

Byron Katie writes that when people would say “Namaste” to her, she always thought they were saying “No mistake.” She loved that, because that is the theme of her life — there are no mistakes — there simply is what IS. She says, “Arguing with reality is like trying to teach a cat to bark — hopeless.” And it just creates more suffering. During my anxious time last year with a ruptured appendix and uterine cancer, I read and reread Byron Katie’s book, “A Thousand Names for Joy” — I wanted to saturate myself in that attitude, in the peaceful state of surrender to what is. As a result, that expansive state of acceptance aligned me to the flow where everything unfolded easefully and things worked out better than I could have imagined.

Once we become aware of our unconscious themes, we can then choose a conscious theme — when the unconscious theme recurs, as it will, we can use it as a reminder to reinforce our new, desired theme. When cancer came a calling it at first evoked my old theme, the fear that I’d somehow made a terrible mistake that caused my cancer. But then I focused on my desired theme, “This moment is perfect just as it is.” That being my focus, that became my experience. Having had cancer made my life better, richer, and more on purpose, because that’s the way I choose to think of it. Shakespeare said, “It’s neither good nor bad but thinking makes it so.” Our focus and how we interpret what is happening is like magnetic paint that colors our experience and draws to us more of that experience. Like energy attracts like energy and our themes perpetuate themselves.

I believe countries have themes. I was feeling disheartened by the terrible tragedy in Haiti, feeling the heaviness of that country’s theme of ongoing poverty and despair. But I am heartened by what I see as their underlying theme of resilience, faith and courage. As slaves they fought for their freedom and won it. A young girl named Bea was trapped under the rubble for days, buried alive. When they finally got her out, she said, “I believed I would live. I wasn’t scared. I wasn’t scared at all.” Their spirit and faith prevails as many of them sing, chant and pray in the midst of this devastating tragedy. Here is a line from one of the songs sung by Haitian native, Wyclef Jean: “Earthquake we see the earth shake but the soul of the Haitian people it will never break.” Now that’s an uplifting theme!

The Earth opened up like Pandora’s box and out came death, destruction and despair - but also faith, hope and charity in an outpouring of compassion and support from all over the world. In the movie Avatar, the natives of Pandora greet each other by saying, “I see you.” The world is now seeing the Haitian people and many are waking up to the theme that Avatar puts forth, that we are connected to the Earth and to each other, we are all one, and we must care for one another and help each other. In that sense, this moment is perfect just as it is.

What are some of the unconscious themes in your life? What are conscious themes you are cultivating? What you focus on grows — may you use life’s manure to fertilize and grow a theme that uplifts and inspires you and others.

Our Author and Inspirer for Today’s Article:

Jan Jacobsen has been on a lifelong personal growth journey. She has completed a 2-year training in Hakomi, a mind/body approach which advocates that healing happens when we bring loving presence to what is. She has also apprenticed for two years with Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks (authors of Conscious Loving), learning skills that help love be authentic and fun. Her thriving relationship with her husband Tom is a testament to the effectiveness and value of those skills. She is the author of EnlightenInk Newsletter, as well as the books Gardening Love; Practical Groundwork for Love to Bloom in Your Life, and Be Here MEOW; Enlightening Lessons Learned From My Feline Friends. Her website is http://enlightenink.com

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Prayer When Tired and Waiting

Dear Lord, there are times when I feel so tired,
so tired, it seems I have no energy at all.
I could barely move, I could barely pray.
I feel like I’ve done so many things,
I’ve exerted my best efforts to plant good seeds,
to water them, to even pull out the weeds
that dare compete with my seeds.

I have waited, and I have almost lost my hope.
I couldn’t see a single plant sprouting from the ground.
It’s as though I have not done anything,
as though I buried trash instead of seeds that should grow
and bear fruit before my eyes.

My God, I have done everything the best I know how,
and now I rest before you.
I pray for your blessing.
I pray for your abounding Grace.
These are not my seeds, after all, but Your seeds.

Let them see the destiny that you’ve made for them.
Let them bare a thousand fruit.
Let my eyes see your miracle.
Fill my cup again, Dear Lord.

It is You that I wait for,
and in You only shall I find
what I have long been waiting for.

Until one is committed,
there is hesitancy.
the chance to draw back,
always ineffectiveness
concerning all acts of initiative (and creation).

There is one elemental truth,
the ignorance of which kills countless ideas
and splendid plans –
that the moment one definitely commits oneself,
then Providence moves all.

All sorts of things occur to help one
that would never otherwise have occurred.

A whole stream of events
issue from the decision,
raising in one’s favor
all manner of incidents
and meetings and material assistance
which no one could have dreamed
would come his or her way.

Whatever you can do or dream you can,
begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now.

I have learned
that in order to be happy
I have to be true to myself.

I have to know
my limitations
but I must never let them
hinder me
from doing the things I could still do.

A bird after all is not useless
just because it cannot swim,
nor a fish worthless
just because it cannot fly.

“Today is my battle! Let yesterday and tomorrow mind their own problems. What I have is HERE and NOW, and I shall give of my BEST - TODAY!”

Selected quotes from Paulo Coehlo’s WARRIOR OF THE LIGHT:

“The Universe does not judge; it conspires in favor of what we want. That is why the Warrior has the courage to look into the dark places of his soul in order to ensure that he is not asking for the wrong things.”

——————

“A Warrior of the Light needs love.”

“Love and affection are as much a part of his nature as eating, drinking and a taste for the Good Fight. When the Warrior watches a sunset and feels no joy, then something is wrong.”

—————–

“This is the first teaching of the Knights: You will erase everything you had written in the book of your life up until now: restlessness, uncertainty, lies. And in the place of all this, you will write the word courage. By beginning the journey with that word and continuing with faith in God, you will arrive wherever you need to arrive.”

One Of My HANGING ON Days

There are days that are not so bad,
but not so good either.

This is such a day.

Nothing of much significance happened,
no joyous celebration,
but no tragedy either to weep about.

I guess this is what you’d call
one of those ‘hanging on days’,
a day when you just hang on in there,
you hang on to your dreams and your current goals,
you hang on to whatever you’re working at
and you keep your hopes up,
“hanging on”  until the better things happen.

That does not mean such days are insignificant,
because without such days,
we can never reach our “party to the max” days,
those “very special days”
and those “this is my moment” days.

Hang on,
there is still something to be thankful for
even in days such as these.

Pondering about reincarnation…

Somehow I felt it could be true.

How I felt it too long to live in my present form forever. How I felt the excitement of starting over again someday. How we change and how we remain the same somehow. How precious the present moment really is because it would never happen again, because we will never be the same person again. How dying is like sleep, and how rebirth is like waking up again after a long slumber.

How my beloved had been there all along, and how love can wait, because love knows it could never be truly lost. How it knows it has eternity to live on – to live again and again and again, always the same love, and yet always new and fresh, always full of wonder and inexplicable joy!

Waiting…

Sometimes the hardest part of an undertaking is not the planning,
nor the work you perform.

The hardest part of an undertaking
is when you have already done everything you ought to do-
you have plowed the fields,
you have planted the seeds,
you have watered them,
and now all you have to do is to wait for your crops to grow.

Seems easy?
Nah!
It’s the hardest part ever!

Many of us would feel uneasy doing so, waiting.
We fear that it might rain so much
and our crops would be flooded,
we fear that someone else may steal them
and reap what they have not planted.

We fear so many things
that we fail to use the time given us
into something more beneficial.

Why do we have to wait at all?

We were given time to wait
so that we can rest,
and so that we can enjoy the vision of a bountiful harvest
and feel the excitement of reaping the fruits of our labor!

We wait not to be miserable.
We wait to be healed,
to be refilled of our energies spent in working,
to be whole again
so that when the right time comes,
we can be ready to receive
the blessings that were meant to be ours!

Here is a special edition of this blog’s best posts on loving yourself more!

LOVING YOURSELF THROUGH GOD’S EYES

In God’s eyes, there is no judgment, there is only acceptance. In God’s eyes, there is no pain too hard to bear nor weaknesses too weak to be overcome by His insurmountable strength.

God can embrace us wholeheartedly, opening us up yet sustaining us and healing us at the same time. God sees all our potentials. God sees our light when all that we can see are our shadows.

continue…

NEVER LET YOURSELF DOWN

Never let yourself down. Take heart, for no matter how awful the accusations against you are, you are still a child of God.

This is the time when your love for yourself will be tested. Whether you will believe what others say about you, or whether you will stand your ground because you know yourself best.

continue…

DIET AND LOVING YOURSELF

Today I’ve noticed how our diets are greatly related to our relationship with ourselves.

For instance, imagine for a moment being in charge of the food of your loved ones. Will you be happy if your loved ones almost starve themselves to death and deprive themselves of food that they enjoy? On the other hand, would you rather that they overeat and eat foods that will make them obese and kill them later on due to high blood pressure or diabetes? Of course not!

continue…

SHOULD I FEEL GUILTY LOVING MYSELF?

It’s only the second day of my challenge to love myself more and I’m already feeling a bit guilty.

I’ve made quite a few purchases, expenses spent to pamper myself. In the evening, I’ve also continued applying a moisturizing lotion to my face. I wasn’t used to doing that before.

Now back to the “guilty” part. I wonder if we also feel guilty when we are being pampered or showered with gifts from our loved ones. Should we feel guilty?

continue…

SEPARATING OUR MISTAKES FROM OUR SELF-IMAGE

When we make blunders, we feel we’re failures. When we have broken relationships, we feel we are broken too and worthless.

However, if we truly desire to improve our relationship with ourselves, we must learn to practice acknowledging our errors without eroding our overall belief in our worth.

continue…

WHAT DO I LOVE ABOUT ME?

During this time of reflection, I’ve learned that I not only lacked love for myself. I’ve learned a shocking truth – that I’ve hated myself all these years. That was the reason I’ve found it easier to love other people. Because they were not as unlovable as me. But if I were to start out as a person apart from my current self, how do I become a friend to this person? What are the things I would appreciate in her? What do I love about me?

continue…