Praying Made Easy. 14. To Release Judgment.

How hard is it to release judgment? I know it can be a major task. Whether judgment of an individual, of an event, of what someone says or does, of a group of people. The list can go on and on and on.

it Iis one thing to make and hold a judgment and subsequently to release it, to let it go. Sounds and feels a lot like forgiveness. No reason to split hairs. To release judgment of a specific instance brings blessings all their own. Peace. Forgiveness. Joy. Comfort. This list, too, can go on and on.

So let’s consider the effort to release judgment as a practice or a habit or an approach to life. Because letting go of judgment and not having to do it time after time is a good deal. I’m talking about a proactive effort to let go of judgment from the get-go. Maybe a good analogy is from my quitting smoking 40 years ago. Seems like a simple choice between stubbing out the current cigarette versus giving up smoking full time. Seems the latter is better and in the long run has a higher return.

Please note. The attention here is to judgment that relates to blame, ill-will, feelings of superiority and/or negativity. That is distinct from discernment, which is essential to our daily lives. Which car to buy. Whether to paint the bathroom orange or green. The choice of a doughnut or a bagel for breakfast.

To my way of thinking releasing myself from being judgmental, as it fits changing my behavior, is a 3-step procedure.

1. Separate the type(s) of judgment you want to discard. Be clear that this is a category you want to release entirely. One example for me is judgment of someone else’s performance. I am not here to score how well others’ do anything.
2. Now, reflect on a recent few times when you’ve practiced that judgment type (like, when I’ve judged someone’s performance). Recall any feelings you had after making such judgments (feelings I had after thinking I could perform better).
3. Finally, select or create a phrase–a mantra–to repeat quickly 5 times. Anytime you feel such judgment coming on. My mantra: Not mine to judge. Again: Not mine to judge. Not mine to judge. Then: Not mine to judge. Once more: Not mine to judge.

I am confident if works.

Praying to Release Judgment

Good friend, God,
the joy of forgiveness and the freedom it brings
are bought for the price of judgment.
Your guidance, your grace, and your reminders
enable us to set aside the judgment
that creates our need to forgive.
You guide us to hold in highest consciousness
that we are One.
Your grace fills us with certainty
that we are all of Spirit.
You remind us in unlimited ways
that to judge one another is a wholly human trait
and to know one another as your perfect creation
is a holy trait of the Christ in each of us.
For this we are thankful.
Thankful enough to release judgment
and embrace your love.
And so it is. Amen.

Love and blessings,

 

 

28 February 2018

Praying Made Easy. 13. To Forgive Yourself

Forgive yourself first, and it’s easier to forgive another. Publius Syrius, a Latin writer, said: “How unhappy is he who cannot forgive himself.” It has to be easier and forgiving someone else from a happy state. Even if we’re not needing to forgive someone else, that happy state’s a better place to be.

Scientific research shows that emotional trauma registers in the body’s nervous system. Your body and my body. That registration then depicts itself with demonstrated emotional responses. Notable and relevant reasons to forgive yourself are guilt, sadness, and limiting beliefs.

When we perform a misdeed that hurts someone, we likely feel guilty. If our behavior is a mistake that costs us some loss, sadness results. To suffer continuous doubt is a limiting belief. All of these are emotional responses demonstrating trauma registered in the body’s nervous system.

Here are two ways to achieve emotional release. This release frees your nervous system. The emotion will have checked out and “left the building.”

1. Shifting statements (thanks to Abraham-Hicks). This works best with the continuous doubt/limiting beliefs. Consider the emotional expression: “I am always slow getting things done.” Let’s shift that to “Wouldn’t it be nice to get this job done early.” The key is the “Wouldn’t it be nice…” as the opening for your shifted statement. Just keep it true.
2. Visualize the registered emotions as gone. For someone who is heavily left-brain conscious, this takes practice, practice, practice. it is not logical and it is not verbal, two left-brain characteristics. It is creative and so it is right-brained. See the guilt or sadness or other emotion as an object such as a suitcase or a rocket ship or a flaming arrow. You can see the object going away, launched into outer space, or shot in the air to vanish in its own flames. Something you can see as repeatedly as necessary.

A Prayer to Forgive Yourself

Living, loving God, how wonderful the ability to forgive.
That doesn’t mean it’s always easy.
Releasing everything but certainty
of love and spiritual Oneness
can be a strain and effort.
And so we’re ready and willing to take on ways
to make forgiving others all the easier.
If those ways brings us greater happiness,
so much the better.
With your good guidance, God, we understand
we want to forgive ourselves first.
We want to make the friendly effort
to replace our doubt with “Wouldn’t it be nice…”
or some similar statement all our own.
Powered by creative visioning that comes from you
we see all other feelings as disposable objects.
And we gladly discard them. Let them go.
And so it is, Sweet Spirit, that we forgive ourselves.
And so we let it be, joyfully. Amen.

Love and blessings,

 

 

19 February 2018

Praying Made Easy. 12. To Know No Lack.

There is a trick if you want to know no lack. A trick so simple it’s very easy to forget, if you don’t completely overlook it in the first place.

And the reason it’s good to know no lack–other than the obvious–is that what we know, we experience. And what we experience is our reality. Ergo (a word not often used), to know lack is to experience, to realize lack. To know no lack…well, let’s look into it.

When we concentrate really hard on what we want, we really have two options. We can concentrate on the what or we can concentrate on the want. Better to concentrate on the first, the what.

Here’s a personal example. I concentrate really hard on wanting a literary magazine to publish one of my poems. It can be any literary magazine. It can be any of my poems. That translates to the true fact that I want to remove my “lack of being published.” That further translates to the true fact that I am making “non-published” my reality.

Here’s the trick. I can concentrate instead on the poem, the published poem. I can focus my attention on everything about that poem: the idea, the joy derived from writing it and revising it, the submissions, and visioning it on a literary magazine page. The published poem is my reality because it’s what I guide my mind to experience.

That’s the trick: concentrate on what you want, not on wanting what you want.

OK, it seems like a fine line between the two options. I call it a slight-of-mind trick. It’s a trick but no trickery. It’s a trick that delivers the treat of not feeling the emptiness, the treat of knowing no lack. I assure you I feel much better with my mind around a published poem–no matter when it’s real–than around the lack of published verses.

Praying to Know No Lack

Good Friend God
who lets us enjoy the abundance of living
the independence to be as we will,
when and where and how we will,
we celebrate knowing no lack.
We appreciate that when we feel that we are without
our minds manifest that reality and the experience
that we are without.
We delight in your letting us know the simple act
of seeing, knowing, feeling, and already having
what we want.
Let our focus be on the result and not on the time and effort
between now and its manifestation.
Let us know manifestation not measured by when or how.
As full as our lives are, we truly know no lack.
Thank you, God, that it is so! Amen.

Love and blessings,

 

 

12 February 2018

Praying Made Easy. 11. To Strengthen Faith

The desire — or the need! — to strengthen faith may seem contradictory to the meaning of faith. If faith is “complete trust or confidence in someone or something”, why would we need to strengthen it?

Don’t know about you, but sometimes my faith feels like it’s “standin’ on shaky ground”. (Thank you, Phoebe Snow.) Why do I feel that way? Not sure I can explain it logically, and maybe faith and logic haven’t that much in common.

I surmise that my ego chooses to undermine my faith in Oneness by offering me doubt. And the saplings of doubt may only project what might go wrong, what might not come true. They may not have already grown to full blown doubts. Still, they give cause to my desire to strengthen my faith.

At times like these, strengthening my faith has been my target…and probably will be again:

• Before a new and involved presentation
• When Cindy or I had some medical procedure approaching
• As I’m about to make the long drive to visit Robin, my sister

Think of times you’ve had. Situations you’ve not looked forward to. Bring them clearly to your mind. I mean clearly. Take some deep breaths and don’t rush through this. Feel the doubt or fear or concern. Look at it. Hear its sounds. Pick it up to see how heavy it is.

Now, select a very real, very physical image for your faith. I suggest something like a box or a tarpaulin or a burlap bag. You probably get the idea. See it clearly. You are creating it in your mind (and heart), so make it as big as you need it to be. Big enough to completely hold, cover, smother your doubts.

A Prayer to Strengthen Faith

We believe in God because we believe in ourselves.
Our belief in ourselves is as great as our belief in God.
And our faith is even bigger. Belief is of our mind;
faith is from our hearts.
Sweet Spirit, we have your power as our power.
That is the power to wrap our doubts, no matter what they are,
no matter how large or scary they may be,
in the tarpaulin that is our faith. Or to stuff them into the box
whose sides and cover are boards of our faith.
We may drop doubts in the burlap bag woven tight with faith
and with a strong drawstring: more faith.
We conceal the doubts, the fears, the concerns that we may
readily and easily throw them away. Let them disappear
into the nothingness that is not our faith in Spirit.
And so it is as we strengthen our faith. And so we thank you!

Love and blessings,

30 January 2018

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