Count Your Blessings

How many times have you heard someone say "count your blessings?" Usually we say it to one another, when we've escaped some awful circumstance or when we receive news that we expected would be worse.

How about counting your blessings to simply recognize how blessed you are! I know, I know, your first thought is what a silly idea but if you just think about it for a few seconds maybe your second visit with the idea will produce a kinder, gentler result.

Our mind is always working to distract our attention and lead us to something material, something sparkly that will interest the mind. The truth is that when we focus on material and superficial objects, we don't have a chance to acknowledge all of the fantastic gifts we already have. Our cultural mindset wants us to continue to acquire "things" instead of valuing what we already have.

Our ancestors valued family, the land and their creator for the most part. These were the simple values that built North America. Today our world is far from those values and the crash that we're experiencing is a result of moving so far away from what is truly important. We are disconnected, isolated and chasing after ideals that in reality do not exist. Not all of us can afford our own home; not all of us can afford to send our children on school trips to exotic countries, not all of us can afford to eat.

If we spend more of our energy counting our blessings, we will begin to grow into becoming the change we want to see for future generations.

Start by noticing five things in your day that you're grateful for; how about the fact that you can breathe, notice your breathing and be grateful for the breath. Be grateful for your lungs, your liver, your kidneys, your children or your parents. Be grateful for the lessons life is teaching you; be grateful for the kindness you have in your heart and extend it to someone who needs it. The exercise has turned my life around and now counting my blessings is what I turn to on a regular basis to remind myself of how precious this gift of life is and how much we truly have to share. There is no store that carries this product and no price that we can pay for it. The great thing is that you will always have more blessings than you can count!

Create your own positive mindset and you'll change the world.

If the universal law of attraction is always delivering what we're sending out then are we surprised that so many North Americans are negative and living in fear? How could it be any other way?
The law of attraction states that the universe is always eavesdropping on our thoughts and delivers exactly what we are asking for with the vibration of that thinking. The delivery comes in the form of our feelings and our feelings shape our lives. In fact, our thoughts shape our lives; if we change the thoughts, we can change our lives.
Think about what is in your environment every day. If you live in a city, it's likely that you tune in your radio to hear a traffic report before you head out in the morning. While you're listening, you'll hear a newscast; no doubt it will list all of the crime in your city and in the world at large. If there is a catastrophic event, you'll hear more about it.
There is no such thing as a "good news" newscast, it just would not appeal to our conditioning. At best, the good news is saved for the end of the newscast and used as a "kicker" to allow the news reader to lighten the mood.
Some argue that news helps to unite our global village and while there's a little truth in that concept, we focus on the sensation of world events. Many of us feel powerless in the face of the trauma of war, cyclones and earthquakes. We don't deal effectively with the challenges we face in our own lives, so hearing about and seeing the unbelievable trauma that others are faced with, simply puts us further into a negative mindset.
We live in a time of war, generated from a mindset of fear. If fear is what our world leaders are thinking then the universe will deliver exactly what is being asked for. A wise teacher said that all defence is an act of war and all acts of war belong on paper, so we can really see what is wrong and begin to figure out a way to change it.
We are at serious risk today of losing everything if we don't begin to change our thinking. If more of us stopped engaging in the negativity by changing our habits, we would begin to change what our thoughts are producing.
Imagine a world without that underlying fear, really imagine it....now you're thinking and what you are thinking will be your reality.

"Love the One You're With"

If memory serves me well, it was Stephen Stills who sang the song "Love the One You're With." The lyrics lay it out...."if you can't be with the one you love, honey, love the one you're with."
He's talking about a love relationship which most of us think of as being between two individuals, right?
See if this works for you.....consider that the relationship is between you and yourself. You being the pure and perfect spirit that is the background to all of your thinking and yourself as the thinking. The thinking believes that it is the boss and continually looks for gratification either in being right about something, being special for some reason or being miserable about something. Spiritual teachers like Eckhart Tolle and Marianne Williamson refer to this idea in their work. The real you is the pure and perfect energy that is always present, the awareness or consciousness that is nurtured when we make a habit of inviting stillness, when we pray or meditate, when we're really present in the quiet.
When we invite stillness and grow in the awareness of a perfect present, where the thinking comes and goes without our attachment, we are on our way to living a more inspired life. It is in a way like growing a garden. First you plant the seed then you observe small changes until something beautiful arises from those small steps.
The concept of Inspiration In Action is to allow yourself to remove the barriers to an opening. Our thinking is pretty powerful and because we've been conditioned to believe that success is based on superficial criteria, our thinking mind has a hard time looking at the idea of personal satisfaction any other way.
Take body image as an example of how we manifest the false beliefs we hold on to. The fact of the matter is North America is suffering a epidemic of obesity. Would you ever know that if you based your knowledge on the images you see in magazines and other media? Like our thinking mind though, you can't win because the messages out there are undermining our wellbeing. We take in a lot of information about how we can't possibly measure up and devour information in advertising that does not have our best interest at heart and at the end of the day we are exhausted from trying to do the impossible.
The answer to this unending cycle of expectation and disappointment is to nurture the real you, the pure and perfect you. How we look on the outside can be deceiving because it's who we are inside that matters. Who we are on the inside is pure and perfect; when we begin to recognize the purity and perfection there is an opening and in that opening you will "love the one you're with."
Funny thing is that when you connect with the idea of allowing the purity and awareness of the perfection within you to grow, you'll no longer need to focus on the thinking that you always considered was in charge. In the presence of this awareness, you'll begin to appreciate that you are a spiritual being, having a human experience. While your body is an integral part of your experience it is not the everything of the experience. When we grow in spirit, we're free to accept exactly what is and in doing so, we begin to develop a peaceful feeling. It will grow on the inside and the beauty of that knowing will show on the outside.

Illumination

I was with a friend recently, sharing my excitement about the concept of "Inspiration In Action." I explained the basic premise of employing gratitude, courage, compassion and forgiveness to enable us to leave our past behind and live a more conscious and inspired life. Her feedback was perfect: "I like the idea of illumination" she said. The idea that all of the qualities we need to employ, to live an inspired life, we already possess.

Think of a dark room, now think of that darkness as your mind, where all of your past stories of hurt and challenge reside along with the fear about the future, those experiences have generated. The memories repeat and morph over time, sometimes disabling us emotionally. Now, imagine a candle being lit in that dark room, illuminating your pure and perfect self, hidden in the darkness. Light another candle and another until the room is bright and beautiful. Illuminating our beauty and purity, focusing on the present instead of the past or the unknown future is what some describe as living consciously.

I challenge myself to stay in the process of living an inspired life by illuminating the purity, the beauty and the good. The past is powerless in the face of this light and we are free to be present. The future can be predicted by the thoughts and feelings we have, so to let go of the anxiety and fear produced by past experience is to step into the light instead of staying in the darkness.

Of course many people love to and feel that they need to hang on to their story, asking "who am I without it?" When we identify ourselves by our story, we sell this life experience short for we truly are spiritual beings having a human experience, not the other way around. When you recognize that you are a spiritual being then letting go of or surrendering your story, your ego, is the only way to be truly authentic.

I challenge you as I challenge myself to employ courage to see beyond what we think we "know" and check in with our true reality, here in the light.

Inspiration

What you believe is a result of your past; what you think about is shaping your future. We are all plugged in to our thinking, believing that we are connected to truth in some way through our thoughts. Living an inspired life involves recognizing that you are not your thoughts and how you think is shaping what comes next.

We all have a story; some of us write books about our story to entertain or educate others. Elizabeth Gilbert's great book "Eat, Pray, Love" is about one woman's awakening to living an inspired life. Her journey started with a sad story about her marriage ending. It's true that for most of us, the journey to awareness or inspiration starts with some sadness or difficulty in our life story. The wonderful thing is how we discover ourselves and rise up into living a more inspired life as a result of something difficult or sad.

My guess is that the universe or the source or god, whatever you call your divine connection, delivers a subtle message and if we're ready to hear it, we can manifest the change without having to go through the difficulties. The truth is that we humans aren't conditioned to listen to that type of subtle message, so we keep going until we run into some type of crisis either emotional or physical and are forced to pay attention. Think of heart attack victims who come to death's door and are given another chance at life. Many of them make sweeping changes in their lives and are more attuned to the subtle messages.

The fact of the matter is that it's difficult to be aligned with your spiritual self in a climate of superficial gratification. We place more emphasis on designer clothes than we do on personal peace. If we don't have personal peace, how can we have peace in the world? We have made great strides in technological development which has served to give us the illusion that we're more connected that ever; in truth we are more disconnected from ourselves and each other than ever.

I mentioned earlier that we are not our thoughts. Our thoughts are a great distraction, like having a multi-media project on the go all the time. There's always some aspect of that project that could require your attention. Some of us make it our life's work to live in that distraction and believe that the distraction is our life purpose. Strange as this may sound: none of that is who you are. I believe that who you are is the purity and perfection that lives behind the distractions. You'll catch glimpses of that perfect energy when you mediate or invite stillness. Living an inspired life requires making peace with the distractions, knowing that they will always be there. Everyone has an ego; the trick is learning to live with having an ego, knowing that who you really are is something much more magnificent, powerful, peaceful, pure and worthy.
I do believe that each one of us has a unique role to play while we're on the earth and that we receive messages, mostly subtle ones, about what that role or mission is. The distractions help us to avoid listening to those subtle messages.

Using inspiration, we can plug into the subtle and nurture our best selves. We can share the miracles of everyday simplicity with each other, celebrating the abundance in our lives, observing the perfection in nature. We can illuminate the peace and goodness that lives within and then share that in our lives. Each one of us can take a small inspired step and make a difference. This is Inspiration In Action.