Spiritual
practice is something we fine tune as we go along in life. We learn what works
and what doesn’t. But there are a few aspects that we must always be consistent
about in our practice.
Ernest
Holmes said in The Science of Mind
that “Perfect belief is the beginning and the end of all good mental work.” Makes
sense to me, but that can be tricky to achieve. Perfect belief, of course,
means the absence of doubt. Perfect belief and doubt cannot exist in the same
space or they’ll cancel each other out. Perfect belief results in perfect
practice. Perfect belief and practice are what most of us aspire to build up
to. How can we do that?
Holmes
offered something about that as well, and these
are the aspects that must be consistently practiced. “We should work, not
with anxiety but with expectancy; not by coercion but with conviction; not
through compulsion but in a state of conscious recognition and
receptivity….obstruction is the result of a ‘hang-over’ of belief from past
years…”
We should work our spiritual practice not
with anxiety but with expectancy. Well, we get the part about
anxiety. Anxiety never attracts more of what we desire, but only what matches
our feeling-based thoughts swirling around in that emotion. Anxiety may happen
before our spiritual practice, but when it happens during and after our
practice, it’s a clear indication that doubt is stronger than faith, at least
temporarily. But what about the expectancy aspect? What are we supposed to
expect? We are, first, to expect the Law to work as it’s designed to, which
means to align with and match what we feel, rather than solely what we say we
want. It’s up to us to remove any knots in that thread. And, we are to
understand that what we want cannot contradict the highest good, or it won’t be
fulfilled. So even though we can and are meant to make a specific request, the
safest thing to ask for and expect is for our highest good and the highest good
of all involved to be fulfilled. Then we need to trust that.
We should work our spiritual practice not
with coercion but with conviction. Well, you can’t actually
coerce the Law of Attraction (Manifestation). That’s not how it works, but we
sure do give it a go fairly often. We end up roiling our own energy when we do
that. Conviction isn’t that easy either, because again we’re back at facing the
fact that any doubt we have is stronger than our trust in Source’s ability to
provide the highest good for all involved. But a belief in the Truth of how the
Law is set up to work with us and for us, that level of conviction, puts us in
harmony with the Universe and in flow.
We should work our spiritual practice not through compulsion but in a state of conscious recognition
and receptivity. How often, especially when stressed, do we then get
“serious” about our practice? We then become like the wolf in the childhood
story of the three little pig—we huff and we puff and we try to blow the
undesired whatever from our life through affirmations and so on. A calmer way
is to practice conscious recognition about cause and effect. There’s a great
deal of discussion about this, but for the purpose of this conversation, let’s
say that sometimes the effect we experience is directly caused by us through
our feelings, thoughts, words, or actions. Then there are times when “shift”
happens and we cannot find a way to point the finger in our direction. At those
times, we need to realize it is now up to us to get directly involved with
cause and effect from that moment on and find something we can align our
thoughts and feelings with that leads us out of darkness and into light. And at
that point in time, we must become receptive to what’s presented to us, for us,
and through us and go from there.
Obstruction is the result of a “hang-over”
of belief from past years. What an effective mental image those
words create of something we all experience. Beliefs and practices of the past
that never served us well but are still carried by us certainly feel like a
hangover. We don’t perform at or feel our best. We struggle to be clear and
articulate in our moments and overall life. If you’ve never had a hangover, you
won’t understand how the person doesn’t function at full capacity or how long
it takes for the person to feel like himself again. The more we let go of
beliefs from the past that never served us or no long do the healthier and
stronger we feel. Plus, the more we then open up to what we’re truly capable of
feeling and accomplishing.
How we
practice life and our spirituality do more than overlap, they are one and the
same. This time, instead of focusing solely on the spiritual practice when you
now reread the key part of Holmes’ quote, focus on these words as a practice
for life as well: “We should work, not
with anxiety but with expectancy; not by coercion but with conviction; not
through compulsion but in a state of conscious recognition and receptivity.” It’s a
good practice, one you’ll appreciate.
Practice makes progress.
© Joyce L. Shafer
You are welcome to use this article in your
newsletter or on your blog/website as long as you use my complete bio with it.
Joyce L. Shafer is a Life Empowerment
Coach dedicated to helping people feel, be, and live their true inner power.
She’s author of “I Don’t Want to be Your Guru, But I Have Something to Say” and
other books/e-books, and publishes a free weekly online newsletter that offers
empowering articles. See all that’s offered by Joyce and on her site at http://stateofappreciation.weebly.com
No comments:
Post a Comment