Friday, May 17, 2013

What You Want and Want to Feel Is Just One Thought Away


We want spirituality or metaphysics to be easier: they are. It’s just that we’re so practiced at doing life the hard way. But, “easier” is really just one right thought away.

Any “off” feelings I have (feelings that don’t feel good) are clear indicators to me that I’m practicing resistance. The intensity of the feeling(s) indicates how much resistance I’m practicing. Once my awareness is on this, I can pay attention to what my resistance is (what I’m practicing), and that I can stop doing it.

We tend to think that our better practice, if we do it right, is supposed to stop any and all contrasts (triggers for our resistance) from ever happening again. No. And, you’ll feel and do a lot better if you understand that your practice is to help you be better at thinking your thoughts, rather than your thoughts thinking you, before, during, and after a contrast.

One big contrast is the idea that we’re supposed to be spiritual or metaphysical superstars. The result of this is that not only are we trying to figure out what our practice is and how to do it, but we carry guilt and self-condemnation for not already being a “superstar” or for not becoming one after a very short time of minimal, sporadic practice.

It’s time to toss away these feelings and start using contrasts and resistance for our benefit. Contrasts and resistance are like checking yourself in the mirror. You can choose to love and appreciate what you see, choose to loathe and criticize it, or choose to improve. Sometimes the best choice at the moment is to feel a bit better, which may be as simple as releasing resistance about whatever currently has your attention. You can assist yourself if you begin to think of resistance as an opportunity to practice how to let it go. The more you practice this, the better and faster you get at it.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had a lot of practice chewing on one or more negative thoughts the same way a dog chews on a bone. These days I’m paying a great deal more attention when I do this. I catch myself doing this and ask, “What do I really want to create more of, really want to feel?” If I don’t want more of what I’m thinking about or feeling, I need to let those thoughts go (be willing to let those thoughts go) and find a general good feeling I prefer, and step into it. And, do this as many times as it takes.

Here’s how to release resistance AND move into better thoughts and feelings: Let go of negative specifics. By “negative specifics” I mean rehashing the past, negatively anticipating the future, and complaining or criticizing. Each of these leads you into more or stronger resistance, as well as “digs the hole you’re in deeper.” You want to go general. General means to say something to your self like, “It’s beautiful outside today” or “I love moments when I feel really good, really in flow.” Maybe recall a time when the Universe gave you an awesome surprise or affirmation.

When you go general, your intention should be to tap into a good feeling and hold that vibration, without thinking any specific thoughts. Be deliberate about this practice, especially when you feel any feeling you’d label as undesired. Return to this feeling as often as you need or want to. This practice creates desired shifts because it releases you from resistance, which blocks desired outcomes and feelings.

Our tendency is to practice being in the frequency vibration of what we perceive as a problem rather than be in the frequency vibration of a, or the, solution. No solution can come to us, either as an inspired idea or an experience, as long as we wallow in thoughts and emotions about how we don’t like a particular contrast. That’s like tuning the radio to a Heavy Metal station and expecting to hear classical music. If you want to feel and be a particular way, you have to align your frequency vibration – your energy radio dial – to the station you prefer.

Here’s the “simple, but not necessarily easy” aspect of this: Any better feeling is truly always just one right thought away. The reason it’s not easier is because we’re so practiced at doing the opposite. It’s not easier, because our ego-aspect is attached to being right, to feeling secure only when it knows the how, what, when, and who solution rather than trusting the solution or desired experience will arrive, if we just let go of resistance vibrations. Trust in Source or the Universe is also just one right thought away.

One right thought is worthiness. You are worthy, but you may not allow yourself to feel it, because of all the opposite thoughts you practice. It’s the same for abundance, serenity, joy, and any other wonderful feeling you enjoy or desire to enjoy. They are all only one thought away.

Maybe like me, you too have experienced this as Truth, from time to time. However, it does have to be the right thought, that is, the right thought for YOU – the thought that gets you over the bump or hump and into your better-feeling energy vibration. The right thought is the one that results in you feeling in alignment and or in appreciation. Sometimes you may have to sift through a lot of thoughts to find The One that does it for you. Sometimes, especially with practice, you can find the right thought quite quickly, if you follow the path of going general to release resistance.

But just as I said about the superstar idea causing you to feel bad about yourself, you are not to stress or strain about finding the right thought either. I’m going to repeat this because it is important: Go general and create a shift simply by remembering a moment that felt really good, when you felt a way you loved feeling, and hold that vibration without practicing specific thoughts. Allow knowing that you have the power to choose your thoughts and the knowledge of what a right thought can do for you, to help you feel empowered, no matter what contrast appears.

What you want and want to feel is there for you as soon as you match your vibration to it. You can match your vibration to what you desire as soon as you cease practice of any resistance vibrations, which often are about your focus on the perceived absence of what you desire. It’s a good practice, one you’ll appreciate.             

Practice makes progress.
© Joyce Shafer

Friday, May 3, 2013

How to Make Your Life Problem-Free


A problem-free life: don’t we all like the sound of that! There is a very real way to achieve this, but likely not the way you’re thinking.

For a while now, people with the intention to motivate others (or themselves) have said the Chinese word for crisis – weiji – also means opportunity. Come to find out, that’s not precisely accurate (sorry, folks). However, the well-intentioned premise is still just as valuable to us, whether or not the meaning of the word we were told is accurate or not.

You see, what the premise delivers to us like a special gift is that each moment presents us with the choice as to whether we will perceive and act from the mindset that something is a problem or an opportunity. The actual event or moment is neither; it’s just an event or moment. It’s all about what WE think, speak, and do at and after that moment of choice.

Now, maybe we need to pacify the ego-aspect a bit, because when a problem shows up or smacks us hard, it doesn’t feel authentic to call it an opportunity. We aren’t always able to rapidly move out of feelings or emotions that come up at such times. It’s too big of a leap for many of us, which, by the way, knowing and owning up to this fact is more authentic than trying to fake being okay and calling something we’re not happy about an opportunity when we’re still grappling or struggling with what we feel. An example of such authenticity comes from a friend of mine who asked her three and a half-year-old niece how she was doing. The child answered, “I lost my sunshine,” and told her aunt what had happened to cause this. My friend replied, “Well, maybe you’ll find your sunshine again later this afternoon.” The child responded with an emphatic "No, not today... tomorrow!"

There may be times when a problem happens and “opportunity” does feel like the word we could work with, but maybe “challenge” or some other word fits the bill better. That’s okay, too. The thing to consider as important here is to choose a word better than “problem” (or any of its first cousins), which tends to bog us down, and makes our energy vibration not one we really want matched by Law of Attraction.

I don’t know about you, but the word “problem” has a lot of not-so-happy connotations attached to it for me. I cringe a bit when anyone says, “There’s a problem,” because to me, that’s telling me I should expect struggle, anxiety, stress, and possibly some other things I’m not eager to experience, whether about the situation or from the person and their attitude about it. I also need to get over myself about this.

We tell ourselves we want a problem-free life, which doesn’t really serve us. Do you really, really know anyone, anywhere on the planet, who has a genuinely problem-free life? I was thinking about this and got the mental image of life resembling an obstacle course we’ve chosen to practice on for strength training of our emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects. Each obstacle is there to challenge us to use what we’ve learned so far and to learn even more, not to defeat us. And we aren’t given just one chance to run the course, we run it as long as we’re alive. It’s never about doing the course perfectly, but about strength, skills, wisdom, enlightenment, and empowerment practice and building.

And this leads me to something I heard Abraham-Hicks say – something that sent a rocket off in my awareness about “The Path of Least Resistance”. I’ll get to what Abraham said in a moment. First, I want to offer that the phrase is a really catchy one that tends to resonate with most of us. But, in my thoughts, it doesn’t only mean the “obstacle course” of life is mostly clear and therefore easier, but also that WE are clear or mostly clear of resistance, as well. (Food for thought: Abraham says the path of least resistance isn’t always easy.)

Back to what Abraham said. Abraham explained that the Source within us is ALWAYS focused on the path of least resistance. If you’ll pause right now and think about that, it makes perfect sense. Source never stresses or strains – because IT KNOWS the paths of least resistance and follows them. However, we each have the right to choose the thoughts we think. And here’s the rocket-launcher statement (for me, at least): “When you choose a thought that doesn’t feel good, you have not chosen the path of least resistance.” I add this: at the very least, when you can’t honestly in a moment choose a thought that makes you feel good, choose one that doesn’t make you feel worse, until you’re able to choose one that makes you feel better or really good. In my opinion, that is the clearest, most concise statement about how we self-sabotage how we feel, what we experience, and outcomes we create that I’ve ever come across. It’s so darn simple and all-encompassing!

The Source within us is always with us, ready to provide the path of least resistance all of the time, every time. We choose a thought that doesn’t feel good, and – wham! – we throw an obstacle onto the course or a boulder into the stream that blocks the flow. No wonder Abraham keeps “beating the drum” about our choosing to feel good and to match the vibration of what we desire.

And, it might help you to consider it easier to match a vibration, if you choose a thought that makes you feel good then quickly lock into the feeling and let go of the thought. The feeling is more important than the thought that got you there. In fact, feeling the feeling will help you stay in the feeling. Thoughts have a way of becoming like the engine on a train that starts chugging forward slowly then builds momentum. Next thing you know, you’re mind is following that train of thought down one or more tracks you hadn’t intended to travel. That thought train becomes an obstacle to holding a feeling that makes you feel good.

Obstacles on the life course are there for us, from us, even if our ego-aspect doesn’t agree with or understand this. Every contrast (another word for “problem” that might feel better to us), causes us to desire something different and better and aim at it; at least, that’s what contrasts are meant to inspire in us. Therefore, we can no more put a halt to contrasts, problems, obstacles – call them what you will – from showing up than we can halt the tide. But we can learn from them. We can learn how to find a place of harmony within us about this fact. And as with the tide, we can learn to look for the gifts that are carried onto the shore by the waves, as well as how the waves can cleanse the sand.

Am I saying we just have to accept “problems”, whatever we decide to call them, and just live with that? Yes and no. Yes, because life is dynamic so stuff is going to happen. No, because when you choose more thoughts that do not create resistance in you, life begins to feel different in a good way. You create less to feel resistant about. When something does happen that feels challenging, you’re better positioned to choose what you think, say, and do about it, which affects everything that follows the pivot-point moment of the event.

So, yes, you can make your life problem-free with an attitude adjustment, by exchanging the word “problem” with one that works better for you energy-wise, and by deliberately choosing to feel good or at least not worse as often as you possibly can, in order to travel the path of least resistance. It’s a good practice, one you’ll appreciate.           

Practice makes progress.
© Joyce Shafer