Monthly Archives: April 2011

BEING THE RIGHT ONE, Part 3, Meditation

Posted on April 27, 2011 | 2 comments

Using Meditation to Find Your Inner Self

In order to be “the right one”, rather than looking for completion outside ourselves, we must be in touch with our inner selves. However, during most of the day, our focus is on the outer, the daily routine of our lives, and our minds are concerned with working, solving problems, shopping and running errands. The chaos and noise of the outer world and our active minds distract us from being in touch with our inner selves.

Over the years, I have learned to integrate my spiritual and material lives so that, for the most part, I am at least marginally in touch with my center most of the time. As problems arise, I stop and turn inward for a moment, observe and evaluate my options. It has taken many years to reach this point and the practice that has made this possible is meditation. Years ago when most of my friends practiced Transcendental Meditation, I was drawn to Buddhism and began the sitting practice of zazen. Now I’ve created my own version of a meditative practice. It doesn’t matter what form of meditation we use. Any form will put us more in touch with our spiritual selves.

Meditation Takes Us Beyond Ego

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of meditation is that it takes us beyond our egos. When we are caught up in the turmoil or pressure of everyday life, our egos are often fully engaged. We are concerned with how we do our jobs or who will get the promotion or be laid off. Parents worry about their skills as parents. Are they doing the right thing about their children’s problems? Why is this friend or partner being distant? Don’t they like us anymore? Did we do something wrong?

As Eckhart Tolle points out in A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, “…almost everyone carries in his or her energy field an accumulation of old emotional pain, which I call ‘the pain-body.” (p. 140) He goes on to explain how negative emotions feed the pain-body and make the ego more powerful. The only way to combat this is to be present so our egos don’t control us. With regular meditative practice, we can be present, an observer in our own lives, operating from our peaceful center and unobstructed by the needs of the ego.

Meditation Supports Spiritual Awakening

Meditation takes us to a place deeper than ego where we are able to release our attachments to the concerns of the day and our emotional pain. This place is sweetly quiet, a place empty of conflict where we learn to observe our thoughts and emotions and release them without judging or attaching to them. In this holy place within, we become an empty vessel and create a space where Spirit can visit and provide us with deeper insights. In this peaceful place, all is well and joy flourishes.

Once we are able to find this peaceful center and commit to experiencing it on a regular basis, the inner balance this creates spills over into our daily lives. We learn to identify those moments when we are about to turn an incident into a major drama and are able to choose not to. We notice that we are being caught up in the fear that something negative might happen, and we choose instead to envision the event turning out positively. Instead of panicking because we don’t know how to solve a problem, we are able to sit quietly and wait for the mind to clear.

Knowing we can choose to experience our challenges with a positive or neutral attitude gives us more power over our lives. Knowing we have a center that is peaceful and connects us with the Infinite Mind gives us a beautiful security. In this place of inner joy, we are healthy, whole, and complete. Having access to our inner selves, we know we will always have the capacity to be “the right one” in our own lives. © 2011 Georganne Spruce

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Posted in Inspirational Posts

Tagged Consciousness, Joy, Meditation, Spiritual Awakening, Spiritual Journey

BEING THE RIGHT ONE, PART 2 JOY

Posted on April 20, 2011 | 2 comments

Living A Joyful Life Through Gratitude

Creating inner joy is the key to a deep sense of inner confidence. If we know how to find joy within ourselves, that is a powerful tool for spiritual growth. If we can do that, what else might we be able to do?

This is the second part of a series on “Being the Right One.” Last week, I quoted Ken Keyes, Jr., who said, “As we grow in consciousness, we discover it is more important to be the right person than to find the right person.” For the next two weeks, we will explore this concept, identifying tools we can use to create this inner joy that helps us feel healthy, whole and complete.

We Can Choose How We Want to Feel

How we think determines what we experience. How we think determines how we feel. How we think is a choice to some extent and that is often determined by how much responsibility we are willing to take in moderating our own thoughts. It’s easy to say that one person has an easier life; so of course, we think it’s easy for her to be happy. That’s true to a certain extent, but how do we account for the fact that there are people paralyzed from the neck down who still find pleasure and joy in life? And how do we account for the people who have everything money can buy, but are unhappy?

I will admit a few bites of dark chocolate can go a long way toward making me feel better when I don’t feel harmonious, but what do I do when that luscious, lingering taste deserts me? Nothing external lasts. It’s always about the interior, our feelings and thoughts determine what we experience and if we can think joyfully, we will experience joy.

One Way to Create Inner Joy Is to Think Positive Thoughts of Gratitude

One of the most meaningful practices to create joy is gratitude. There are many ways to experience gratitude. Every morning when I first awake or am at breakfast, I thank Spirit for all the good things I have experienced recently. I used to do this sometimes on the way to work. I’ve even taken a moment while I was stopped in traffic, to thank Spirit for a couple of things. Many people keep a gratitude journal where they write down the things they are thankful for each day. Expressing thankfulness can be done anytime, but allowing time for gratitude at the beginning of the day is very beneficial.

I especially love my friend Debra’s practice. “Each day when I am going for my walk / run, I am always grateful……..first that I can get out and use my body to run up and down the hills. Second, that I live in such a beautiful place in which to enjoy the wonderful outdoors. When I am grateful, my morning exercise becomes joyous and not something I am complaining about having to do. It makes my whole day more positive.”

Finding Joy When Life is Difficult

On those days when I feel everything is going wrong, I force myself to hunt for those tiny morsels of gratitude, remembering how much I really have – shelter and food and the necessities of life. Sometimes, I simply thank Spirit for helping me through another day. It’s interesting how focusing on one tiny object of gratitude always leads me to the next one, and before long, I feel that glimmer of joy lighting up the negativity.

That glimmer of joy reminds me of all the times I felt confused, bereft, or abandoned and how it passed. This joy reminds me that I am stronger than I think I am. It refuels my confidence and I remember that I am never alone. Spirit is always there and with Spirit, I can do anything. And I am grateful for that. © 2011 Georganne Spruce

Do you want to know more about thinking positively? A wonderful source is The Vortex by Esther and Jerry Hicks.

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Posted in Inspirational Posts

Tagged Consciousness, Gratitude, Growth, Joy, Spirituality

BEING THE RIGHT ONE

Posted on April 14, 2011 | 4 comments

“As we grow in consciousness, we discover it is more important to be the right person than to find the right person.” Ken Keyes, Jr.

How many times have you said, “If only I had the right___.” We can fill in the blank with any of the following: the right partner, the right dress, the right friend, the right job, the right house or the right degree. Actually the list is endless. What we are really saying is that we believe something outside of us is magical enough to fix what is not right within us. If we are not at peace with the interior, the exterior will never be acceptable.

When I found the house where I now live, I chose it for many reasons. It has beautiful hardwood floors, it’s one level, it has lots of trees around it, and it’s in a quiet neighborhood. But the main reason I chose it was that when I walked in the front door, it felt like my center. The energy felt like my peaceful energy when I’m meditating. A feeling of happiness and thankfulness filled my heart. The energy of the house’s interior matched the energy of my interior at its best. I wanted a house where I could come home from the trials of the world and find life there – a place of healing, regeneration, and celebration that matched the best part of me.

Too often we focus on what is out there, and time after time we are disappointed. Husbands, parents, bosses, friends just don’t live up to our expectations. The problem isn’t with others; the problem is within. When we are the right persons, we fill up our own emptiness. We find the courage to make the decisions that will make us happy.

One time when I lived in New Mexico, I was complaining about everything that was going wrong in my life. I said to a friend, “If I could just put together the life I want, I would be happy.” Without missing a beat, she smiled and said, “When you’re happy, Georganne, you’ll have the life you want.” She was right of course. When we generate that joy within, take responsibility for being the right person in our lives, our expanded consciousness becomes a magnet for all good things. The people we meet and the experiences we have are matches for our joy within.

This week let’s make a list of all the things we can do daily to generate joy within ourselves. Each time a wave of joy springs up inside, notice what you’re doing or thinking that has generated this. Please share at least one thing under comments and I’ll use your ideas in my next few posts. Blessings!

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Posted in Inspirational Posts

Tagged Consciousness, Growth, Joy, Self-awareness, Spiritual Journey

WORDS ARE MY DNA

Posted on April 6, 2011 | 3 comments

Where does the intoxication of spring lead you?

When grape hyacinths and red tulips spring up in my front yard, I get an urge to create something new in my life. Like many people, I’ve never created children or a vegetable garden. Words are the DNA of my creations, and whatever form they take is a new creature. When I wonder about what I have to pass on to the next generation, I think it is simply this: the word beings I create through time.

Like the flowers in the yard that scatter their seeds so that new flowers will grow next year, I scatter thoughts, ideas and stories into the wind, hoping they light on fertile minds and light a fire or provide comfort. Growing up, there was one thing I loved as much as Nature – books. Before I could read, my mother had to lock my books away in the dining room bureau drawer to force me to go outside and play.

I can’t imagine what kind of life I would have had without knowing Faulkner, Dostoyevsky, Keats, Dylan Thomas, Margaret Atwood, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf or Alice Walker. Books exposed me to cultures and ideas that I would never have encountered in my environment. My mother taught me to love books, and with books in my life, I have never been bored.

So, as warmer spring days descend on us and the fragrance of fresh cut grass fills the air, I always come down with spring fever. I have trouble focusing on any work and stand in the yard feeling the breeze blow through my hair forgetting what I came out there to do. The activity of my mind slows down as I take the time to watch the squirrels spiral up the tree trunk and the crows congregate for a communal discussion.

I’ve come to understand that spring fever is the mental equivalent of cleaning out the closet. It forces me to slow down and clear the mental space so that there is room for a new revelation or this year’s spring poem to come through. I wait patiently for the bud of the idea to appear and when it opens, spilling its beauty onto my paper, I birth a new creation.

I am always saddened when I meet people who believe they are not creative. The Creator lives in each of us. How can we not be creative? It’s in our DNA. When we allow ourselves to think outside “the box” or learn something new, we are exploring our creativity. When my electrician finds a way to rewire my ancient lighting fixtures although the parts he needs can no longer be bought, that’s creative. When I have to substitute rice flour for wheat flour in a recipe, and I still end up with an edible cake, that’s creative. Creativity is about living, not just about art and poems.

What creative urge is pulling at you? Rebirth yourself this spring and feed your creativity and spirit. There is always something new to be created.