Recognizing the gift -Ian Patrick

event207

event207Life seems to present us with a never-ending series of hurdles, issues, difficulties and out-and-out disasters, does it not? Well, actually, no! There is nothing that happens to us that cannot be seen, once we change our minds, to hold a gift or a miracle within it.

The ego and the Holy Spirit, mutually exclusive, are two parts of our minds. The ego is not a malevolent being; it is merely a belief we hold. To the ego, there are problems. To the Holy Spirit, there are no problems – only opportunities. It is up to us to decide which we listen to.

Everything that happens in my life happens for a purpose. I can choose the purpose. I can choose it to serve the ego’s purpose – to keep me stuck, in pain and turmoil – or I can use what happens for the Holy Spirit’s purpose, as an opportunity for learning and growth.

For example, I recently taught a workshop in Norway. Having established all the details several months in advance, I was all set to go. Two days before my departure, I learned that my co-facilitator and I would receive only a small fraction of the pay we had expected. Unbeknownst to me, a residential retreat weekend had been arranged; the participants provided with two nights’ lodging and two days’ meals – paid for out of the workshop fee. My co-facilitator and I would, consequently, be paid only what was left. In effect, we would be paying for participants’ board and lodging out of our pockets.

Watch the completely Re-Imagined A Course in Miracles The Movie SPECIAL EDITION
http://www.acimthemovie.com

I was shocked, angry, disappointed and bewildered in equal measure. When I told the Norwegian promoter how I was feeling, she asked if I wanted to cancel the weekend. Without hesitation, I replied that we would be there and that I was sure it would work out. I was determined to see this differently and to accept it regardless – but I felt sick.

It turned out that the retreat centre was beautiful, located amongst wooded hills 100 miles southwest of Oslo. It had been snowing and the setting was idyllic. The group of 14 participants was delightful, the food provided was wonderful, and the workshop was a great success. I had an excellent weekend. It was a gift.

On the Sunday night following the workshop, the promoter invited my co-facilitator and me into her stunning home, where we stayed for two days. That night I sat with her to discuss the issue that had arisen. Even though I considered the weekend a gift, I hadn’t yet forgiven the mix-up and lack of communication. We both shared how we felt about the events five days earlier. As I heard her speak of how ashamed she felt and how much she believed she had failed by not informing me what was being planned and how it would affect us, my heart went out to her. Suddenly, I felt nothing but warmth, empathy and closeness to her. It was a beautiful moment of joining – my second gift.






Receive free videos from A Course in Miracles TV 

We respect your email privacy

I could have chosen to see the situation as a problem, even as a disaster, and closed myself to the miracles and healing opportunities available. I am grateful that I chose to see it differently, receiving the gifts that were the inevitable result of changing my mind.

Perhaps we can begin to welcome problems for what they truly offer us, opportunities to let go, to forgive, love, and remember the truth.

Ian Patrick is Manager/Coordinator of Miracle Network, publisher of “Miracle Worker” magazine, serving students of A Course in Miracles in the UK since 1994.

Explore all of our ACIM resources: CLICK HERE


ikeFrom the Right Mind of AVAIYA Founder, iKE ALLEN

MOVING BEYOND SELF-JUDGMENT ~ by Carrie Triffet

Carrie Triffet

Carrie TriffetMOVING BEYOND SELF-JUDGMENT  ~ by Carrie Triffet

 

Our thinking mind is hardwired to judge every aspect of our lives and the world around us; judgment is a part of its intrinsic function. Some of this judgment is very useful, of course, as it helps us navigate safely through our surroundings; yet judgment shows itself to be a highly destructive force, when used as a weapon against ourselves or others.

 

We may experience self-judgment as a running monologue of compulsively critical mental chatter: I’m not good enough/thin enough/young enough; or maybe we say, I’m a fraud, I don’t deserve this success. Or, I shouldn’t have spoken up at the meeting today – now everyone thinks I’m stupid.

 

This internal voice can be cruelly insistent. But are its statements actually correct? Should we believe what this corrosive and unloving voice has to tell us? Short answer: Absolutely not—because the thinking mind is not who we really are.

Discover your True Self at www.leapmovie.com

The true you is your absolute best self. This true self of yours is strong, wise, peaceful and infinite. And it has no use at all for judgment of any kind.

 

Most of us are rarely able to get in touch with this true self—beyond a glimpse now and then—because our thinking mind covers it over like a heavy blanket. Yet if we never venture out from under that heavy blanket of compulsive thought, we’ll never truly break free of self-judgment.

 

Oh sure, we can practice self-affirmation, we can do our best to build our self esteem. But ultimately that’s all just lip service. Remember, our thinking minds are built for judgment. It’s what we do. You may be able to rearrange a few details at the surface level, but real substantive change can’t happen without bypassing the thinking mind and its unconscious criticism. This is the only way we can come to know the true self, that self that accepts us completely, just as we are.

 

So how do we do this? There are many tried and true methods for stepping outside the ongoing story told by the thinking mind. One of them is to practice becoming the observer of our own thoughts. It’s a deceptively simple practice, yet a very powerful one: Just consciously notice each time a self-judging thought arises.

 

The thinking mind doesn’t particularly like having witnesses; many of the cruelest judgments we inflict on ourselves are completely nonsensical. They would never stand up to the light of day. So by becoming aware of each of these critical and unloving thoughts as they occur, we offer ourselves a fresh opportunity for evaluation: Is this thought true? Should I believe it?

 

Now that we’ve brought these painful self-judgments to light, it’s time to answer these important questions in a different way. Let’s bypass the same old answers offered by the thinking mind, and open ourselves instead to the eternal wisdom of the true self.

 

When we ask, Is this thought true? we let the question linger unanswered by the mind. Of course, the mind will want to rush in with all its persuasive stories about why the thought is true. We ignore the stories; we’re not interested in them right now. Instead, we stop all thinking. And we stop wishing we’re different from what we are; we stop all resistance to what is. Ok, I have stubby thighs compared to people who are taller or thinner. That’s neither good nor bad. It just is.

 

This refusal to find fault is bound to feel uncomfortable and strange at first. Our self-attack is such a deeply ingrained pattern, it can be very unsettling at first to leave those familiar condemnations behind. But in this discomfort is precisely where freedom is found. We sit in the silence of no expectation, no judgment, no comparison to others. And slowly, we may begin to notice a glimmer of genuine peace arising in that empty space.

 

This peace is a postcard from your true self: Wish you were here.

It’s an invitation to go deeper within, to discover firsthand who you truly are. For it’s here in the true self that we discover a boundless well of authentic love and compassion for ourselves.

 

Yes, our thighs may still be stubbier than some. And whatever mistakes we’ve made in our relationships with others along the way, those still stand. All the things that were seemingly imperfect about us before are seemingly imperfect still. And yet, we are wholly loved and wholly accepted anyway.

 

Seen in the light of eternal grace, all our imperfections are perfect. When we are in touch with this higher self, we become unafraid to love ourselves fully, warts and all. And when this happens, it brings a tremendous sense of freedom and relief. A sense of being comfortable, possibly for the very first time, in our own skin.

 

~ Carrie Triffet, author of Long Time No See, and The Enlightenment Project

 

© Carrie Triffet 2013

My Romance with A Course in Miracles by Nicole Casanova

NicoleCasanova

NicoleCasanovaNicole Casanova: My Romance with A Course in Miracles

I have been a lover of The Course for over ten years. I came to its teachings when I was young and full of lust, yearning, defiance, judgment and sadly, destruction. I was Nikki Casanova- overachiever extraordinaire and self-proclaimed Victim of the World.

 

I had had my share of abusive relationships and traumatizing situations. I can tell stories about my parent’s behavior that might shock you. I can tell you stories about my behavior as a result of said behavior that will do more than shock. They might make you cry. As terrible as it was, I loved my story. The story became my identity. It became my excuse, my get-out-of-jail-free card and for that reason, I clung to my story for dear life. It allowed me to avoid being whole. The story, with its graphic details of denial and denigration, explained my gaping holes.  It provided a very sensible reason for why and gave me the great joy of never having to take responsibility.

 

My dad stopped working when I was ten to seek his own brand of self-help. My mother, dealing with her own self-prescribed fixes for mental illness (She took the Dachau motto “Work will Set you Free” to heart), resented him for it. Years of fighting later, she took up target practice. One of my only memories from childhood that still remains is seeing her best shots to the head and heart posted above his side of the bed. Eventually after I had convinced them to get divorced, he sued her for alimony and my understanding of what love was and was not, was solidified.

 

I grew up in Miami when dating the biggest drug dealer was a sign of status and VIP was the only way to go (I suppose in Miami it still is). Being a proponent of women’s lib and a self-described entrepreneur, I made my own money in the trade to prove I could. Always the star student, I did undergrad in three years and had my Masters at 22.  I moved to San Francisco to put my thesis, Targeted Marketing on the Web, into practice. I went from Coke Princess to Dotcom Queen.

Watch Ken in the completely Re-Imagined A Course in Miracles The Movie SPECIAL EDITION
http://www.acimthemovie.com
 

I loved excess. I did everything big. One year I even oversold my quota by $6.5 million. I lived the glamorous life with all the darkness that comes with it. My self-worth was directly correlated to how skinny, tan, wealthy, connected or wanted I felt I was. My identity was solely a product of external inputs. I was dying. At least I wanted to die. I was sure that by 27 I’d be dead and couldn’t wait to hurry things up. Then I’d be able to get some rest. I could go to sleep. I’d finally be at peace.

 

The Attraction

 

When I was 25, I was introduced to A Course in Miracles and I went through a very intensive process designed to unwire my personal mythologies. Note the phrase “personal mythology”… these really were the myths that I had formulated.

 

This was the basic story line. They were my overarching themes:

“No one, especially a man, will ever be there for you.”

“The more you do, the more you will be loved.”

“There’s never enough ____________.” Fill in the blank- money, time, attention, love.

 

As the daughter of an Italian Catholic father and a Russian Jewish mother, I had my judgments about organized religion. However, The Course and the discussions that ensued were more similar to my philosophy courses in college than to any sermon I had heard. Ten years of actively destroying myself through any and every addiction, couldn’t muffle a voice within that said, “Listen.”  It was exactly what I needed to hear and the way I needed to hear it. I was finally open to listening and what I heard resonated with my soul.

 

The Course said that I was responsible for what I created. More importantly, the Course said that we are all perfect, whole and complete. Until then, I was pretty sure that I was unlovable or not good enough depending on the situation. The Course spoke simple truths that I’d always known- we are all connected, love is our birthright, and all things are lessons God would have me learn. There were points that seemed counterintuitive to what I’d been taught or absolute opposites from what my family believed; yet they made perfect sense to me.

 

I understood “All that I give I receive,” “In my Defenselessness my safety lies,” and “Sickness is a defense against the truth.”  I had majored in Creative Writing and Philosophy and have always been drawn to the power of words and ideas. Now I was gifted with a poetic message that spoke directly to my soul. “Love waits on welcome not on time,” “Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait,” and “Defenses are but foolish guardians of mad illusions.” What I knew yet was unwilling to admit, and what I believed yet needed to see in writing, was all there. It said, “If you want love, be love. If you want peace, be peace.” I was hooked.

 

It was the application of the lesson to my everyday life that really made the concepts stick for me. I started attending Monday night CIM meetings where each of us shared how we applied our daily lesson from the Course to our lives. I learned to witness my thoughts, to see what I was thinking in the moment, and saw my experiences as a direct result of my belief about what I was. For the first time ever, I learned that my thoughts created my reality and that what I felt internally was exactly what showed up for me externally. For example, when I felt “not good enough,” you could bet I was buying the next round of drinks and when I felt I was love, I was at peace and centered. I started to see all of my experiences as gifts that held some lesson for me.

 

The Inspiration

 

At 26, I confounded everyone when I quit my mega high salary dream job. I was selling Internet advertising during the boom and let’s just say I was in the right place at the right time. However, the long hours and the large paychecks still had me questioning, “What’s the purpose?” I had read every self-help book and studied all these eastern principles and knew that it was time for me to make my contribution.

 

I decided to make it my mission to create a tool that explained just that, and was accessible to the masses. It showed up as a board game called Shift. Yeah, it surprised me too. Yet, because it was experiential, people were willing to step out of their comfort zones and start seeing what was driving them.

 

The Course was my main impetus for creating Shift. I wanted to deliver these principles to a larger audience. I wanted the Course’s messages to be interactive so that a younger audience would benefit. I wanted to distill all of these universal principles into something that people who weren’t lighting incense in Boulder or Berkeley could experience.  Knowing that I could choose my reality was the single most important thing I had learned in my life and I wanted to empower other people with that same knowledge.

 

I quit my job in 2001. I worked on Shift for the next few years. We incorporated in 2003. The product hit the shelves Christmas 2005. We created a physical board game that incorporated much of the Courses lessons. The game allowed us to open the discussion, pinpoint what was driving people’s behavior and give them a first look at why they did what they did. For the first time, people not only saw that their thoughts created their reality they could actually identify what those thoughts were. The lessons from the Course gave players the path to move from fear to love and drop their defenses. We sold the game around the country, did game nights and workshops. We ran out of money.

 

My Old Standby

 

I thought it would be easy. After all, I had a Masters in marketing and public relations and I sold Internet advertising for years. I thought it would spread like wildfire because I had chosen the more purposeful path. I thought we would receive tons of word of mouth marketing, that we’d need no money to really push a brand into retail and that the doors would open and the skies would part.

 

I believed in Shift and my new life of purpose. I trusted that the universe had my back. I went through everything including my IRA and eventually there was nothing left but a recurring discussion with my very patient husband about when things would change.

I let my employees (more like saviors and Shift champions) go. I pulled back. I resented Shift and God and myself. I went through a period of grief. I had failed my baby. I got a job, then another, and finally settled with a position at a company that took my interest in behavior change one step further. It actually cemented the learning process by giving people a way to apply what they learned. After eight years, I now had a consistent salary, health insurance and the ability to breathe. I started to attract new things. I remembered my true identity- love. I refined. I enhanced. I embraced.

 

I let Shift go and it came back. I made a movie, got an investor and even launched the online version with multi-person video chat. Now anyone, anywhere in the world could play… for free. Shift’s mission, to remind as many people as possible that we are love and loved, was finally coming to fruition.

 

Shift morphs, as do I. The Course and the words in it stay the same.

 

All of this time, the Course stood by my side, my bedside that is. Eventually it was given its own spot in an area that I had dedicated to my inconsistent meditation practice. It sat on its altar with other altar-type amulets, rocks, a statue of some Hindu-god I’ve yet to identify, a picture of my mother and sister in Kenya with the Masai, and a picture of an island in Thailand that reminds me that I’ve known peace.

Like my meditation practice, my relationship to the Course is inconsistent. It always has been and I’m ok with it. It is like my relationship to God. It’s always there waiting to remind me that I am loved. As an aside, when I started reading the Course I was sure I could get through it and never say the word God or acknowledge that relationship. I was all about spirit or universe, anything but the dreaded G word. It took me three years of reading the Course to finally say the word God. I know now that to the extent that I remember to connect with the Course, my Self or God, the more I remember how connected and loved I am. The Course has always sat patiently waiting to share the gifts within it. Every time I’ve opened its pages, there’s always something perfectly said and perfectly applicable. The Course is my reminder.

 

A Course in Miracles gave me the courage to finally look within. It has been my comfort when I’ve believed that I am totally lost. I have incorporated the Course into so much that I do and believe. The Course is why I quit my job. The Course is why I stopped destroying myself. The Course is why I started Shift; its words are a major component of the game. I read the Characteristics of God’s Teachers multiple times a year, I have a copy on my fridge and I included it in Shift’s Teacher’s Training. The Course is how I found my soul mate. It is how we grow our relationship. Even my wedding vows drew from the courses teachings.

 

I have the same book that I started with. The pages are a rainbow of colors, highlights, underlines and notes. I use pictures of people that I love as bookmarks. I like seeing their faces and I know the Course blesses them too. The indigo blue spine cracked years ago. I taped it. Years later, the entire spine broke apart leaving the cover to dangle unprotected. I sourced my childhood self and used a brown grocery bag to fashion a book cover. My brown paper jacket offers sturdy protection and a place to use colored markers. However, I know that my makeshift jacket need not work hard to keep my Course in Miracles book safe. Its message, “Nothing real can be threatened… Nothing unreal exists… Herein lies the peace of God,” is within me now.

Explore all of our ACIM resources: CLICK HERE


ikeFrom the Right Mind of AVAIYA Founder, iKE ALLEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicole Casanova, an avid learner and student of A Course in Miracles and all universal principles, has constantly been drawn to psychology, philosophy and what makes people tick. Having focused her online marketing years learning how to incent behavior, she then focused on creating individual and organizational behavior change starting from the level of thought. She’s now turned her interests towards learning transfer and follow-through systems so that people can take their awareness, apply it and truly make a shift.

What if it isn’t too good to be true?

happy-woman

How Much is Too Much Good? by Kylie Renner

Kylie

Ever catch yourself saying this is too good to be true, and wondering what the catch is? What if it isn’t too good to be true and there isn’t a catch? What if our divine birthright is to experience more good than we can even imagine but we stand in our own way of receiving it. Our culture and collective experience has told us that there is only so much good out there in the universe, and we shouldn’t expect too much. In fact because there is not enough good to go around we must not be too greedy in expecting or wanting too much of it for ourselves because we are then depriving someone else of their good.

The funny thing is that mystical traditions throughout the ages have taught that there is no limit to the good in the universe, and our accepting our part of it doesn’t diminish it, or take it away from anyone else. There is enough love, peace, wisdom, and resources for everyone to experience their good. So why then do we stand in the flow of the river of good and have a limited experience?

Part of the answer can be seen in all of the stories we each can repeat about how “so and so won the lottery and then things went really wrong,” which is known as the curse of the lottery. I have heard people wax poetic about how they would never want to win the lottery because it would be too much for them to handle; they would surely sabotage themselves; all anyone would ever want them for is their money; because they didn’t “earn” it, they wouldn’t feel right with that much good. Ultimately these stories tell us what we think would happen to us if we truly stepped into the flow of the good, namely that things would be too good, we wouldn’t know how to deal with them and ultimately we would end up worse off. No wonder we distrust our good, because ultimately we distrust ourselves and get in our own way of receiving it. Fundamentally we don’t think we are worthy of the good that is trying to show up in our lives and therefore we block it both consciously or unconsciously at every moment. Occasionally dipping our toes in the flow of the river of good, but pulling back quickly as soon as we begin to feel the current of love, peace, joy, and harmony pulling us, because it feels like more good than we can handle.

The truth is that we can handle as much good as we are willing to accept, embrace and become. The universe isn’t holding our good away from us, we are the ones creating the distance. Whatever good we are seeking is also seeking us, be it fabulous, harmonious relationships, fulfilling work life, unlimited prosperity, or a deeper connection to our Spiritual Truth, and when we get out of our own way we open for an inflowing of all the good that the universe has been waiting for us to reach out and accept.

We can unlearn the lessons we have been taught to always hope for the best but must at the same time prepare for the worst, by hoping for the best, and preparing for it. Join me for a workshop May 7th from 9-2 to further reveal the hidden beliefs that are blocking the good we are seeking from coming into our lives, and how to step confidently into the flow of good in order to experience a life that is filled with more peace, beauty, joy, and bliss than you ever imagined possible.

 

Learn more about Rev. Kylie HERE.

When I get it everyone will get it. -Earl Purdy

Earl_Purdy_profile_91147

Earl_Purdy_profile_91147At one of the first talks I went to on A Course in Miracles, close to 30 years ago, a person in the audience asked about a problem she was having, and the teacher’s response, as I recall, was, “Well, it’s just an illusion, and your problem is basically that you think you’re a body.” And that person responded back, “I know that makes a lot of sense to you, but that answer doesn’t have any meaning to me whatsoever.”

I think that’s what happens in life with A Course in Miracles; those of us who have been studying it a long time will sometimes forget all the study and all the resistance that we had to go through before we got through the point that we could think the world is an illusion and feel total peace about that. What happens a lot is when people hear you say, “The world is an illusion,” it generally completely turns them off and keeps them from being very open-minded about the rest of the stuff that the Course teaches. Sometimes I think that when we hear that statement from Course teachers, and I’ve done the same thing, “It’s an illusion, it’s an illusion, it’s an illusion,” it’s almost like it’s an Ego trick to make sure that more people are not interested in the Course.

What I found to be true, regarding the question “Why don’t more people know the world is an illusion?” is that I look at it from two levels. One level is that this is my dream and everybody in the dream is just an aspect of my own Consciousness. There’s One Mind, so it’s one dream, and that dream is part of that One Consciousness. I think that’s why the Course says, “When I get it everyone will get it.” It’s all One Mind; when any one of us really gets it, then we all do. So the reason why more people in the world do not recognize it as an illusion is because I don’t completely know it’s an illusion myself.

Watch Ken in the completely Re-Imagined A Course in Miracles The Movie SPECIAL EDITION
http://www.acimthemovie.com

In what I call Level 2, the Course tells us that we are separate and there is someone out there to forgive. It will give very specific exercises: to think of someone you don’t like and then try to see something in them beyond what you see in them. So even the Course talks in terms of duality sometimes, in order to make a point. And so when I’m working the Course, I’m looking at it from the perspective of it’s all Me, it’s just all One Mind, and I’m also working it from the standpoint that it does look like we’re separate, and that the Holy Spirit is separate.

I believe that most people, at the level of the dream seeming real, don’t believe the world is an illusion because of two things: 1) their past learning and 2) the fact that they believe that they are in a body.

In the workbook, it says, “I see only the past;” it was talking about “I see only my past learning.” (There’s the description of putting a cup up against your lips and knowing how a cups feels, but we only know of the cup from our past learning.) For most people, all of their learning has been about believing that this (world) is the only thing there is. They’re not taught to believe the world is an illusion.

The Course says that the body is what we use to make the dream real because if there’s the purpose of the body from the Ego perspective, it’s to make the world real to the experience of pleasure and make the world real to the experience of pain. People don’t realize that the world is an illusion because they’re having a physical body experience of some form of pleasure and some form of pain, which convinces them that they are their body and that this is real. That’s why they don’t believe this is an illusion, because they’re having actual feelings of various degrees of pain and pleasure.

I’ve often talked to my class that if I get injured and/or I’m starving on the desert, then I hope A Course in Miracles student doesn’t show up. Because they would show up, and instead of giving me some water and giving me a sandwich because I haven’t eaten for two weeks, they will be there saying, “Oh, it’s an illusion, it’s not real.” Whereas another person would see me and say, “Oh my God, give him something to eat!”

I hear Course students say it all the time, after hearing the news of things going on in the world, whether it’s floods or disasters or whatever it is, and then they’ll say something like, “Well, this is an illusion.” I always say to them, “I understand that at another level, but at this level right here, as long as I think I need to get up in the morning and have breakfast, lunch and dinner, then I also hope I draw people to me who believe in giving me breakfast, lunch and dinner if I don’t have it.”

It’s clearly not going to help me by telling me it’s an illusion, and it may be, but at the level that I’m operating now, that is not the way I am experiencing it. I’m recognizing that it’s an illusion at an intellectual level, but I believe at the time you really get it at an experiential level, that you really wouldn’t have to eat and you wouldn’t really have to drink and you wouldn’t really have to do any of those things. What the Course says in a workbook lesson is “Sickness is a defense against the truth,” and at some point we won’t need food or drink, but until you are that way, then you really don’t believe it’s an illusion yet, and so you need to be open to your needs being met at the level of your dream.

Like when someone’s loved one dies, it’s easy for A Course in Miracles student to say, “Well, they weren’t in their body.” You know, they’re spiritual. The real test would be if they could say that when it was their own mother or father or child or person or brother. It’s easy to spout the Truth out about somebody else about this stuff but can you take that attitude when it’s about someone or something that’s near and dear to your Heart. If you can, then you can pretty much say that you really believe what you’re talking about, but to be able to say that about my issue, I’m not very impressed. You and I really could make the past to have a spiritual investment in my relatives, my friends, my life, my situation, so it’s easy to say it’s an illusion. But if it was your own child hit by a car, could you really say that’s an illusion in total Peace? If you can, then you probably do believe what you’re reading and what you’re saying.

So the whole thing about why don’t more people recognize it’s an illusion is simply because I don’t yet. And at the level of the world, they’re not taught to believe that’s true and their body is constantly witnessing through pleasure and pain, to the reality of the dream.

Is there a benefit in helping people to see that we are One Mind, but without necessarily talking about it as an illusion?

Yeah, I think that’s the easiest level. If you’re going to do it at all, that’s the easiest level to do it; at the level of the world – supporting the idea that we’re all united and that we’re all connected in some way, at some level. There are very few people who wouldn’t accept that idea in theory even if they couldn’t accept it as a fact.

There’s a line in the Course where it says that when communicating with people, basically you’re communicating with them at the level that they’re capable of communicating right now, without fear. It’s not the ultimate level that they’ll be able to communicate, but right now that’s where they’re at. I think the most important thing is to be able to communicate Love or Truth to a person at a level that is not frightening to them. Because really what you want is the Peace and the Connection more; it’s not about the words – it’s about the Connection that you feel with the person and the Connection they feel with you. So if you’re using Course terminology and it’s frightening to them, then it’s really your Ego that’s teaching the Course to them and not the Spirit, because Spirit wouldn’t be saying something to them that would be frightening them and upsetting them.

Focus on the idea of remembering the Truth for a person without actually saying it to them. There’s a saying in the Course, “They remember when you forget.” In the Teacher’s Manual, it talks about how your mere presence is a reminder; that it’s your thoughts that are asking the right questions. For people who are more “asleep,” as I call it, it would be better for you to think all these thoughts of Truth – and silently – and look at the other person correctly, more so than it would be important to say things to them that they may resist.

I’ve found it to actually work; I’ve seen more relationships in my life and situations heal, through thinking the Truth – without saying anything – than I ever was able to solve problems and relationships by discussions and process. To be quite honest about it, if it’s true that our Minds are joined, then we should be able to reach each other mentally. The person’s Ego won’t be able to understand what’s going on. But their Holy Spirit communicating with my Holy Spirit is what I want to accomplish, to start the healing. So I call it an “Inside Job” when I’m dealing with people who really seem to be asleep.

Explore all of our ACIM resources: CLICK HERE


ikeFrom the Right Mind of AVAIYA Founder, iKE ALLEN

The Ten Keys to Business Success with Brian Tracy

Briantracy

BriantracyThere are ten critical areas where your ability to think largely determines the success or failure of your business. The greater clarity you have in each of these areas, the better decisions you will make and better results you will achieve.

Key Purpose
What is the purpose of a business? Many people think that the purpose of a business is to earn a profit, but they are wrong. The true purpose of a business is to create and keep a customer. Fully 50 percent of your time, efforts, and expenses should be focused on creating and keeping customers in some way.

Key Measure
The key measure of business success is customer satisfaction. Your ability to satisfy your customers to such a degree that they buy from you rather than from someone else, that they buy again, and that they bring their friends is the key determinant of growth and profitability.

Key Requirement
The key requirement for wealth building and business success is for you to add value in some way. All wealth comes from adding value. All business growth and profitability come from adding value. Every day, you must be looking for ways to add more and more value to the customer experience.

Key Focus
The most important person in the business is the customer. You must focus on the customer at all times. Customers are fickle, disloyal, changeable, impatient, and demanding-just like you. Nonetheless, the customer must be the central focus of everything you do in business.

Key Word
In life, work, and business, you will always be rewarded in direct proportion to the value of your contribution to others, as they see it. The focus on outward contribution, to your company, your customers, and your community, is the central requirement for you to become an ever more valuable person, in every area.

Key Question
The most important question you ask, to solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, or achieve any business goal is “How?” Top people always ask the question “How?” and then act on the answers that come to them.

Key Strategy
In a world of rapid change and continuing aggressive competition, you must practice continuous improvement in every area of your business and personal life. As Pat Riley, the basketball coach, said, “If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.”

Key Activity
The heartbeat of your business is sales. Dun & Bradstreet analyzed thousands of companies that had gone broke over the years and concluded that the number-one reason for business failure was “low sales.” When they researched further, they found that the number-one reason for business success was “high sales.” And all else was commentary.

Key Number
The most important number in business is cash flow. Cash flow is to the business as blood and oxygen are to the brain. You can have every activity working efficiently in your business, but if your cash flow is cut off for any reason, the business can die, sometimes overnight.

Key Goal
Every business must have a growth plan. Growth must be the goal of all your business activities. You should have a goal to grow 10 percent, 20 percent, or even 30 percent each year. Some companies grow 50 percent and 100 percent per year, and not by accident. The only real growth is profit growth. Profit growth is always measurable in what is called “free cash flow.” This is the actual amount of money that the business throws off each month, each quarter, and each year, above and beyond the total cost and expense of running a business.

Action Exercise
You should have a growth plan for the number of new leads you attract and for the number of new customers you acquire from those leads. You should have a growth plan for sales, revenues, and profitability. If you do not deliberately plan for continuous growth, you will automatically stagnate and begin to fall behind. Growth is not an accident; so you must plan and map out your growth plan if you want your business to see a bright future.

Click here to visit Brian Tracy’s website: Step-Forward-Pressed-Blue-icon

 

The Elusive Spiritual Goal of Balance

GoldTao

The Elusive Spiritual Goal of Balance by Kylie Renner.

Kylie

The elusive Spiritual Goal of Balance seems to be on everyone’s lips. Balance is elusive, I believe, because it is unrealistic. What is balance anyway? Trying to make certain that areas of our lives even out so that we can remain in some state of suspended animation. It seems to me that life—well, at least, my life—doesn’t work in balanced ways.

        Life is about being fully present in whatever we are doing, with whomever we are doing it, not worrying about if we are balancing our time and energy right. In fact, the idea of balance implies dueling forces, that captivate our attention and keep us wondering if we are doing the right things, at the right time, with the right people. And it is mighty exhausting trying to find balance in a life that wasn’t meant to be balanced.


Life for me is an invitation to get centered. The frenzy and chaos and never ending expectations for my time, energy are all invitations to remember that at the center of it all there is something deeper going on.  There is something at the center of the silence, peace, and the inward journey as we enter into the ever darkening days of fall and winter that draws us closer to the center of who we are, and there we get to be present with who we truly are.

To learn more about Kylie Click Here. 

Enlightenment Cartoons.

PoohPiglet

Life is perfect when we share our spiritual interpretations and humor from a place of love with everyONE. -iKE ALLEN

Please visit the artists featured below to learn more about them:

 

PoohPiglet

 

humor7

darwin-v-god-cartoon-cjmadden-400x313

 

 

20080430

imgres-1

 

 

 

kermit

 

 

imgres

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to Serve the Good of the Whole.

solo-beach-133x150

How to serve the good of the whole. By Kylie Renner

Kylie

A big question on my mind recently, is how do we “serve the good of the whole.” Where you neither impose your own agenda on life, nor do you shy away from being a collaborative contributor to what shows up in front of you, and where you seek to serve the good of your whole life.  In order to serve the good of the whole, it sometimes means standing back in a supporting role, and sometimes it means taking the lead. It is about, “what is mine to do?”—no more and no less.

“What’s mine to do?” and the related “is this mine to do?” are two powerful questions to direct and focus our intentions in the new year. The question, “what’s mine to do?” asks us to open our hearts and our minds to a greater idea of what is needed from us, than could be provided by the narrow confines of our past and our current relationship with the world. I have found that many people are spending their whole lives doing things that aren’t theirs to do, and are miserable for it. They are doing these things because they are “supposed” to do them, or because they committed to doing them, or because they just “have” to.  Certainly there are things that “need” to happen everyday which aren’t my favorite things, but if I am systematically finding myself wishing I could escape from my life it is probably because I am doing something that isn’t mine to do.

I believe that part of this tendency to do things that aren’t ours to do is that we don’t trust that that they will get done unless we do them ourselves. In fact, doing things that don’t bring us joy out of a desire to control the world may be one of the biggest ailments facing our awakening, because it is a hard habit to break, and somewhere deep down we must be willing to admit that all of our doing isn’t out of selflessness, and the desire to serve, but instead comes from our desire to control outcomes, and our inability to trust that the perfect outcome will arise even without our direct participation. As I have examined this tendency in myself, and have been able to step back and observe what happens when I step into a place of trust I have found that either the person to whom the task or doing really belongs is right there available to make it happen with joy (although of course not how I would have done it) or the task falls away because it was something that I created that really didn’t have to get done.
The new year is a great time to make new commitments to yourself. This year allow yourself to recommit to that which brings you alive. This will be just the solution to turn your new year into something extraordinary. I believe that anything less than extraordinary is a waste of your precious time, and that anything or anyone that does not bring you alive is too small for you, and now is the time to live the extraordinary life you were meant to live. And this doesn’t mean that what you are doing has to be extraordinary every moment, but that you are extraordinary in it, because you are clear that it is yours to do, and you are free to be who you uniquely are in it.
To learn more about Kylie Click Here.

The Inner Work Of Sustainability by Rita Desnoyers-Garcia

Rita02

The Inner Work Of Sustainability by Rita Desnoyers-Garcia

Rita02

Over the past few years, I’ve been expanding what I thought “sustainability” means in
my life. I’ve been going inward more and more and when something “unsustainable”
comes up, I’ve been looking at it from a different perspective. Sometimes in the
beginning there’s been a “oh no! I thought I was done with that!” response. But shortly
afterward, I see it for what it is. An opportunity to let go of what no longer serves me. It
is no longer sustainable. It no longer sustains or supports me.

This inner work included letting go of needing to get answers from the outside, the
need to be perfect, the need to be liked by everyone, the need for approval and so on.
These are no longer sustainable for me. Then, I noticed that as I let go of the inner
unsustainable ways of being, I started to have more interest and energy for outward, more
conventional sustainability practices.

I’ve been focused on food sustainability, using less plastic, using what I have versus
buying something new and so on. My inner sustainability was intertwined with my
desire to bring sustainable practices into the physical world. It really is all connected.
Sustainability is not just an outside job. It is sustained through inner work.

Here’s a nifty exercise to increase and support your inner and outer sustainability.

You just need You, a chair, and perhaps something to write with and onto. Read through
the entire exercise first before playing with this.

Sit in a comfortable chair, close your eyes, and take three breaths in through the nose and
out through the mouth, slowly and deeply. Allow your body to relax with each breath.
As you come back to your normal breathing continue to allow yourself to relax each part
of your body. If you notice a part of your body that is tense, see if you can relax it with
the next breath. Just take a few minutes to sit with your breathing. If you have other
thoughts that come in, that’s OK. Recognize them and let them go and come back to
your breath. Stay in this space for as long as you like.

After sitting in this place for about 5 minutes, you can continue by asking yourself these
questions:
1) What feels sustainable in my life right now? In other words, what brings life,
support, joy, pleasure, freedom, relaxation? Enjoy it. Support more of it. Relish
it.
2) What feels unsustainable in my life right now? In other words, what brings
lack, fear, restriction, sadness? Can I let this go? Can I see it from another
perspective? Is this working for me anymore?

When it feels like you have some information to play with here, give thanks for this
wisdom and slowly open your eyes. Make notes of the answers that came to you about
what sustains and doesn’t sustain you or what can or can’t continue on anymore. Make

no judgments of the answers as much as you can. See what unfolds over the next few
hours and days.

 

Rita Desnoyers-Garcia is an Energy Healer, Spiritual Life Coach, Author, Musician,
and Channel. Her website is www.BecomingAwake.com.