"Happiness is a choice. We either make ourselves miserable or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same" - FR
I read this quote for the first time over 3 years ago and it resonated with me right away. In fact, I memorized it after reading it once and used to repeat it to myself anytime my ego would try to make me miserable (even though I wasn't conciously aware back then of what I was doing or who my ego was, I was clearly on to something!) In every single moment, we have a choice to be happy and THAT is awesome.
More often than not now, I do succeed in choosing Love and happiness for myself. This has been no small task but the point is, it is possible if you want it and are willing to put in the work. I am very grateful that God sees fit for me to do this work on myself and my gratitude speaks for itself when I share what works for me, with you.
When a bad attitude creeps in, also known as, when I engage with my ego and allow it to take over, I KNOW what I am doing and I notice it almost immediately. I am actively working on returning to Love today, so when I choose to go against that, I really feel it. My spiritual practice is not perfect and sometimes my ego stills wins, yesterday was one of those days. I was ACTIVELY (key word, actively) choosing to engage in negative self talk and I had a horrible attitude, which in turn, caused me to have a horrible day! It wasn't because of anything outside of myself, although my ego did try to blame it on work sucking and me being tired. Maybe work did suck and I was tired but those are not excuses to hate my life! My negative thoughts started to spiral out of control (as they always do) until I was completely unlovable and destined to be alone for the rest of my life!!
Say hello to the drama Queen that is my ego!!
This sounds ridiculous (and it totally is) but the point is, it can happen to me if I choose to engage in the negative mind set that my ego wants me in. This is why I say, happiness is a choice. Thank God, 8 hours of being wretched was enough for me. I went home, took a nap and woke up to what felt like a fresh start! My ego still tried to pull me back down into the depths of despair, but I had had enough. I ACTIVELY chose to realign myself with God and do things according to His will for me. I went for a run (instead of ordering a large pizza) and I carried a message of hope to a bunch of beautiful women in a drug and alcohol treatment centre (instead of crying in bed with my large pizza) and, surprise surprise, I felt amazing afterwards. I had salvaged what was left of my day and I am now left with another CLEAR example of how my thoughts create my reality. I am also left with the hope that the next time I am tempted to choose misery, I will remember this and I will choose happiness instead. A great learning experience!!!
A Course In Miracles tells us that the ego wants to separate us from God. Since my ego can ONLY thrive in separation, it tries to keep me stuck there. Separation is not real. It is of the ego mind and it is something I have learned here. Now my job is to learn to return to Love (aka return to God)
Anytime I bring the darkness to Light, I am moving closer to God and I am healing myself and others around me.
"Enlightenment is not imagining figures of Light, it is making the dark concious" - Carl Jung
Bringing my egos 'tiny mad ideas' as the Course likes to call them, to Light and sharing them with YOU, helps me to LAUGH at the ridiculousness of it all and KNOW that my fears are NOT facts. Hence this blog and sharing with all of you how being tired and choosing to engage in negative thoughts lead to me being alone forever! (HAH!!)
It is all about bringing the crazy thoughts, ideas, beliefs and perceptions of the ego to the LIGHT.
If you're stuck with the egos tiny mad ideas ... I urge you to share today! Even if you feel silly telling someone about what you're thinking (I always do) I guarentee you'll feel better when you're laughing in the face of your ego. God's Light will shine through you if you let it. Love yourself and all those tiny mad ideas of the ego, and most importantly, forgive yourself immediately when you choose to listen to them.
"Forgiveness is the only sane response" - ACIM
Love, Kylie
xo
Tuesday 29 October 2013
Friday 18 October 2013
Let LOVE prevail!
My focus over the past few weeks has been to return to love in all areas of my life. Being a peceful observer of my perceptions and my fears and moving forward with faith no matter what. This sounds like a simple concept and it certainly IS, although one that definitely requires a lot of time and effort, a level of diligence, if you will.
We all have times in our lives where our nasty egos try and sabotage us with fear and sometimes this can happen quite often. For me, fear has been coming up a lot lately and it's been fear of the future (and not getting what I want) fear of rejection and fear of being "imperfect". I'd say I've narrowed it down to those being my top 3 fears at the moment, which is pretty cool because now I get to focus on doing the work that needs to be done to replace those fears with love. (YAY!)
The way in which I turn my fear into love is through a concious contact with my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God. Your Higher Power can be WHATEVER you believe It to be. It can be God, the Universe, Nature, the Angels, Buddha, Allah or all of the above!! Whoever and whatever you choose or want to call it. My God is ever changing, and I also believe in the Angels, and Buddha and Nature and the Universe, come to think of it, I believe in it all! It literally does not matter. I cannot stress this enough. Believing in a Higher Power also in no way means you have to be or become super religious. I find that people often get confused and become panicked when I so freely refer to God in my every day life. Just because I believe that God is my best friend, does not mean that He has to be your best friend or that I'm religious, because personally, I'm not. Some people are though and that's awesome too. You find what works for you and roll with it. I LOVE God because for me, nothing else has EVER helped me to love MYSELF like my spiritual connection has. I've tried countless ways to relieve my fear and my pain and the only way I experience any kind of peace, is through prayer and meditation, that concious contact with God. I believe that with God, all things are possible. I've literally watched myself move through things that I NEVER THOUGHT I could get through, and probably wouldn't have been able to get through on my own. And that, for me, is a MIRACLE. It still takes my breath away.
I felt the need to share exactly how I move through my fears today after being attacked for what I believe in last night. This is the first time that someone has very openly critisized the way I live my life and it was very interesting to me, ESPECIALLY because I've been so focused on strengthening my spirutual connection lately to reside in a place of love at all times. This doesn't mean I am ever going to be able to eliminate fear, I just want to practice removing my true self from that fear and to remember that all fear comes from a place of ego and the ego is purely of the mind.
I create the fear.
Fear isn't real.
Danger, on the other hand, is real.
Fear is a liar.
We must remember the difference between the two. Danger and fear and completely different. I don't want you to ignore a dangerous situation because you're in la la love land, but I definitely want you to ignore those fear based beliefs that keep us stuck!
FEAR IS A LIAR. Don't forget this (and I won't either!)
I came into my spiritual practice almost 4 years ago, so of course, I haven't always been this way, in fact, I used to curse God's name and wonder why my life was the way it was. I was always playing the victim. The only time I would do any sort of praying, was when I was begging Him to save me from some awful situation I had put myself in or help me make sense of my so called "life" at that time. Hearing the negative opinion of this person last night only affirmed my belief in God further and made me see so clearly that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I am so grateful for my relationship with God and my understanding and application of spiritual principles in my life today. I am grateful for the peace I am offered as a result of the work that I do on a daily basis, and I would not go back to the way it was for anything. I wouldn't change it either, because it got me to this moment.
Fear breeds hate and we have far too much of that in our world today. I challenge myself and all of us today, to pray for those who are lost, for those we don't necessarily like, for those who commit hate crimes, those who commit crimes in general, those who struggle daily with loving and accepting themselves, those who are addicted today and those who continue to judge others and live in fear. We need to practice Love no matter what. No matter who tries to hurt us, Love them anyway. The haters are the ones who need Love the MOST. That being said, I need to love myself the MOST when I am feeling fearful, and for ME, loving myself means turning inward and connecting to my Highest Self, through God.
Here's to living in peace and love, as it's written so beautifully in A COURSE IN MIRACLES;
"God knows you only in peace and that IS your reality".
Wishing you health, happiness and love today and always,
Kylie
XOXOXO
Today's Quote:
The Guest House by Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
We all have times in our lives where our nasty egos try and sabotage us with fear and sometimes this can happen quite often. For me, fear has been coming up a lot lately and it's been fear of the future (and not getting what I want) fear of rejection and fear of being "imperfect". I'd say I've narrowed it down to those being my top 3 fears at the moment, which is pretty cool because now I get to focus on doing the work that needs to be done to replace those fears with love. (YAY!)
The way in which I turn my fear into love is through a concious contact with my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God. Your Higher Power can be WHATEVER you believe It to be. It can be God, the Universe, Nature, the Angels, Buddha, Allah or all of the above!! Whoever and whatever you choose or want to call it. My God is ever changing, and I also believe in the Angels, and Buddha and Nature and the Universe, come to think of it, I believe in it all! It literally does not matter. I cannot stress this enough. Believing in a Higher Power also in no way means you have to be or become super religious. I find that people often get confused and become panicked when I so freely refer to God in my every day life. Just because I believe that God is my best friend, does not mean that He has to be your best friend or that I'm religious, because personally, I'm not. Some people are though and that's awesome too. You find what works for you and roll with it. I LOVE God because for me, nothing else has EVER helped me to love MYSELF like my spiritual connection has. I've tried countless ways to relieve my fear and my pain and the only way I experience any kind of peace, is through prayer and meditation, that concious contact with God. I believe that with God, all things are possible. I've literally watched myself move through things that I NEVER THOUGHT I could get through, and probably wouldn't have been able to get through on my own. And that, for me, is a MIRACLE. It still takes my breath away.
I felt the need to share exactly how I move through my fears today after being attacked for what I believe in last night. This is the first time that someone has very openly critisized the way I live my life and it was very interesting to me, ESPECIALLY because I've been so focused on strengthening my spirutual connection lately to reside in a place of love at all times. This doesn't mean I am ever going to be able to eliminate fear, I just want to practice removing my true self from that fear and to remember that all fear comes from a place of ego and the ego is purely of the mind.
I create the fear.
Fear isn't real.
Danger, on the other hand, is real.
Fear is a liar.
We must remember the difference between the two. Danger and fear and completely different. I don't want you to ignore a dangerous situation because you're in la la love land, but I definitely want you to ignore those fear based beliefs that keep us stuck!
FEAR IS A LIAR. Don't forget this (and I won't either!)
I came into my spiritual practice almost 4 years ago, so of course, I haven't always been this way, in fact, I used to curse God's name and wonder why my life was the way it was. I was always playing the victim. The only time I would do any sort of praying, was when I was begging Him to save me from some awful situation I had put myself in or help me make sense of my so called "life" at that time. Hearing the negative opinion of this person last night only affirmed my belief in God further and made me see so clearly that I am exactly where I am supposed to be. I am so grateful for my relationship with God and my understanding and application of spiritual principles in my life today. I am grateful for the peace I am offered as a result of the work that I do on a daily basis, and I would not go back to the way it was for anything. I wouldn't change it either, because it got me to this moment.
Fear breeds hate and we have far too much of that in our world today. I challenge myself and all of us today, to pray for those who are lost, for those we don't necessarily like, for those who commit hate crimes, those who commit crimes in general, those who struggle daily with loving and accepting themselves, those who are addicted today and those who continue to judge others and live in fear. We need to practice Love no matter what. No matter who tries to hurt us, Love them anyway. The haters are the ones who need Love the MOST. That being said, I need to love myself the MOST when I am feeling fearful, and for ME, loving myself means turning inward and connecting to my Highest Self, through God.
Here's to living in peace and love, as it's written so beautifully in A COURSE IN MIRACLES;
"God knows you only in peace and that IS your reality".
Wishing you health, happiness and love today and always,
Kylie
XOXOXO
Today's Quote:
The Guest House by Rumi
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honourably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
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