Today, accept yourself just as you are, with your strengths and your struggles. Let go of the tension you hold in your efforts to perfect yourself. Ironically, it's only when we embrace ourselves, with forgiveness, tenderness, and humor, that we have the space, courage, and energy to make the changes we would like. Constant criticism (even with good intentions) makes us fearful and small, less willing to take positive risks for fear of mistakes.
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Peace is not just a feeling. Peace is a divine power, presence, and activity. Peace makes you "right sized," or able to recognize and let go of what is not your responsibility and clear and courageous enough to accept what is. Peace brings a depth of stillness. Peace sorts what is important from what is not. Peace brings both a sense of deep purpose and of lightness, humor, and perspective. The power of peace is with you today.
Today, feel the power and activity of Truth. Truth is a divine presence that restores sanity, that reveals what is your responsibility and what is not, that awakes you to any distorted thinking, that gives you broader perspective, that helps you trust a power larger than yourself. Truth is powerful. Truth is kind. Today Truth is working with you and through you.
A great source of our anxiety is our unwillingness to feel the full range of our emotions. Today, be willing to feel their depth and range. Pause. Pay attention to how you are feeling, without fear or resistance. You will not be swallowed in your feelings. You will not fall into a pit of despair. You are not doomed to hurt yourself or others with them. They just need a little space to breath. Hold them with care and without judgement. With a little recognition, some feelings will gently evaporate. Some feelings will lead us to a truth we needed to see more clearly. We don't obsess over our feelings and try to over-analyze them - that is a tricky form of resisting the experience of them. Just hold them with acceptance and care.
Most of us have seen - or been - that person on an airplane gripping the armrests as if their effort alone holds the airplane aloft. Many of us live our lives that way - as if holding our bodies and minds tense will keep us safe. However, this tightness does nothing more than make it hard to breath - and think - and exhaust us. Today, remember that Love holds you and practice releasing into that comfort and safety.
When we fill up our life with noise (listening to podcasts, streaming shows, compulsively following the news, checking in with social media, skimming magazines, mindless chatter, etc.) we leave little room for listening to Love. Today, notice your tendency to want to fill stillness and silence. Consciously leave spaces of silence. Notice your discomfort. Notice your desire to fill the silence. Wait through your unease. Open yourself up to the presence of Love that fills that space and is accompanying you and communicating to you.
Mary Baker Eddy writes, ". . . feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all absorbing spiritual love."
Today, you don't need to try so hard. Instead, rest in the unspeakable peace which holds you in a deep, rich, full, restful, safe, loving stillness. Feel it here and now. From the book The Worry Cure:
"Acceptance is the opposite of worry, since worry is a struggle against what is real and what is possible. . . . you can practice acceptance by becoming more mindful: staying in the presence, describing rather than judging, and letting go of control. Knowing your limitations helps you feel more in control. As you give up your frustrating worry and search for answers to unanswerable questions, you begin to surrender control. As you give up the demand for the truth or the answer, you recognize what is here and now - what is in front of you - is the place to start from . . . once you have accepted what is, you can then choose to commit to change. Change does not mean doing what you want to do - in fact it usually means doing what you don't want to do. Change and progress in your life involve successful imperfection and constructive discomfort - doing what you have been avoiding because of your worries." Most of us have areas in which we are exceptionally brave and those in which we tend to avoid or procrastinate. Acknowledge your areas of strength and courage. Admit to yourself the areas in which you are stuck, procrastinating, or moving more slowly than you'd like. Most likely, you are resisting because you feel some fear or discomfort you are trying to avoid. The guilt of procrastinating is more familiar and comfortable then taking steps into the unknown. The way forward is to be willing to feel the discomfort (as you do in the brave areas of your life) and to accept imperfection.
Most of us are very busy being the center of our own universe, busy being the boss of our lives, trying to control and adjust circumstances and people around us to match how we think they should be.
Mary Baker Eddy writes that God is "the center and circumference of our being." Today, feel that you are the center of God's love and attention, and so is everyone else. God is the circumference, or the wide circle, that embraces and includes us all. Do less trying to control your circumstances and more acknowledging Love's attention, presence and activity. |
AuthorTarn Wilson is the author of the memoir The Slow Farm and numerous essays. You may read more of her work at tarnwilson.com. Archives
September 2020
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