Trust life, trust God

I am learning to live by the Spirit. Much of this living is about letting go, trusting and seeing the perfection in whatever happens.

I recently ended a business relationship which felt like I was in a sinkhole. I had invested a lot of time and there was a potentially big payoff. I saw the play, how I would become a victim, and I left.

This is how life works. When you let your fear of change control you, you stay safe, and in a way, protected. This resistance to change prevents you facing deeper survival issues of safety.

At some point, your soul will want to be free from fear, and the survival issues will need to be surrendered to the Divine. This represents a transformation from self-reliance, to Divine-reliance.

As you decided to be braver than your fear and act towards your independance, your deeper issues will manifest. When fear and disempowerment is a driver, there will be a cycle of loss, of struggle, of scarcity, of increasing difficulty. There will be a feeling of swimming up the river, and a sense of not making progress and of going in circles.

The pattern will keep repeating itself.

Very often life will go haywire the first time you allow yourself to be vulnerable and step out in faith. Yet, if you keep learning, gradually it will work out.

One of the most important practices is surrender, and surrender can be expressed through praising God for the perfection in all situations, even the difficult ones.

And when you step into life, into love, there will be a time of growth, or renewal, of life. For Christ came to give life, and the Devil came to take it away.

In Christ

Bruce

Is a philosophy true?

Philosophy: The most basic beliefs, concepts and attitudes of an individual or a group (Mirriam and Webster Dictionary).

The simplest answer is that if you believe it, then it’s true for you.

One of our biggest mistakes as humans is that we think that everyone experiences the world the same as we do, and we cannot understand that each person has their unique philosophy. Each person experiences their own unique world, and this can lead to conflict if you are not aware. For example, if you value saving money, and your partner values spending money on holidays, then you may have conflict based on your different money philosophies. Who is right? Both you and your partner are right.

When you are from the same culture as another, it’s easy to think that you have the same philosophy as the differences may appear small, yet when you are with someone from a very different culture, for example Africans and Hindu’s, then the differences become apparent. One culture kills cows; the other worships them. Who is right?

So is a philosophy true? There is subjective and objective truth. Say for example it’s raining, and everyone agrees that it’s raining. This is an objective truth. If I believe rain is good and you believe rain is bad, then ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are subjective truths. It is true that rain is good for you and true that it’s bad for me. Learning to separate objective from subjective truths is important, yet can be difficult when you have a deeply held subjective truth, for example ‘love hurts’ or ‘money is the root of all evil’.

The human mind will look for evidence to confirm what it subjectively believes. If you believe that no-one likes to talk to you, then every time someone ends a conversation with you, you may say internally ‘I’m boring to talk to’. If you believe it, it’s true. Your values determine what your mind notices.

The way out of this is to look for different evidence. Choose a new belief such as ‘I am an engaging communicator’. You may start to learn communication skills, and you may learn how to have good conversations. As you act differently, focus on the different results you are getting. Choose to find ways to confirm the new belief. Whatever you choose to focus on becomes true for you. You can make whatever philosophy you want into your personal truth by choosing where to focus your mind.

Learning to consciously focus the mind is difficult in the beginning, yet it becomes easier with time. Meditation is an excellent tool to begin to train the mind. Once you learn how to focus your mind, your life becomes an intentional, creative experience, and this is the key to creating the life you want.

Choose your philosophy with care.

:)

Bruce.

What is abundance and scarcity?

In this blog, we have a look at abundance and scarcity.

(Spiritually, abundance is the enlightened mind, and scarcity the ego)

Technorati Tags: abundance,enlightened mind

Abundance is usually thought of as material abundance, and from the mindset of scarcity consciousness, abundance represents the ability to endlessly consume. Different forms of consumption include food, money, power, love, and the consumption is driven by an underlying sense of emptiness and deficiency.

Abundance, as we use it at www.connected2success.com represents a story that we tell ourselves. The story has some key principles

· There is enough for everyone and more can be created

· You exist to contribute to each other and to the planet

· Everyone has unique relevance so there is no need to fight and compete.

· You are connected to Spirit and to a context much greater than yourself

· Spirit is infinite and is your true source

· Life is intelligent, there are no accidents and everything is fortuitous

The advantage of being in abundance consciousness is a fearlessness, because Spirit, your true identity, is eternal and indestructible. This allows you to face scarcity, see it, and transform it through staying present to it. Abundance doesn’t mean always feeling good; it means being willing to face whatever arises, and if you keep doing that, you eventually start to feel really good. Because abundance feels connected to Spirit, in its mature form it is full and overflowing, giving and loving.

Scarcity is driven by survival needs. It’s felt as an emptiness, and someone in scarcity consciousness never feels they have enough. Scarcity always wants more, for example money, more achievement, more love and more food. Scarcity feels disconnected from Spirit, and so tries to attain fullness through consuming and controlling the world. As scarcity places its wellbeing in the material world, it is prone to being a victim when conditions change outside its control.

Scarcity is accidental and arose as a survival mechanism in a world of physical threat, where it was necessary to fight of predators, other tribes, and hunt for food. In a world of few humans, abundant rescources and limited technology, scarcity was an excellent survival mechanism, and didn’t threaten the environment.

As technology has improved, and the number of humans has increased and demands on natural resources rocketed, humans can no longer fight, compete, and accumulate and expect to survive. What is needed is a new way of being, one of contribution, connection to Spirit, care and relationship. Abundance is the spiritual solution to the limitations of scarcity.

The implication of moving into abundance consciousness is a life of creativity, wellbeing, spontaneity, and most likely increasing financial and material abundance. Abundance relationships are open, supportive of growth, trusting and accepting of difference.

The implication of staying in scarcity, is one of increasing struggle, limitation, desperation, and eventual annihilation. Scarcity relationships are manipulative, controlling, cold, and resistant to change. In a world of change, inability to change becomes a threat to survival.

What can you do to begin to move into abundance? Learning to be present to challenging emotions, and not identifying with their story, is the golden key.

How do I know if I am in abundance (enlightened self) or ego (scarcity)?

Learning to recognize if you are in abundance is scarcity is essential, because when you act from scarcity, scarcity is strengthened and manifested in your life, and when you act from abundance, abundance is manifested and strengthened.

Your outer world is a reflection of your inner world. When circumstances are difficult, it is easy to blame them for your discomfort and your powerlessness. When life is tough and not going your way, it’s easy to fall into the victim mode. Yet, the assumption of abundance is that we are intimately connected to our results in life, and you can always change your response. Instead of being a victim to circumstance, you can change your circumstance.

The scarcity response to difficult circumstance is to try and exert power over the world, and to try to take control to avoid further discomfort. The scarcity response is a reactive response, driven by fear, doubt and anxiety, and is experienced as ‘work harder, try harder, be more disciplined’ and in getting others to do what you want. The scarcity response is seen when you are caught in the rat race, racing against everyone else and against time to get ahead in life.

The abundance response is to know that your results in life are not divorced from your inner consciousness. The moment that this is recognized, the movement into abundance has happened.

The first thing abundance does is to stay present to the inner tension of discomfort. There is a willingness to be with the feeling of discomfort, and to not allow the feeling to drive the stories of scarcity that so easily result. As the tension is stayed present to and felt into, sooner or later it will liberate, and there will be a felt release of tension.

After the release of inner tension, a feeling of openness follows, and from this open space, you can freely engage with the world, giving your gifts, receiving the gifts of others and engaging in authentic relationship. From the place of openness, there is no sense of being threatened or having to survive, and there is a sense of there being enough for everyone. From abundance, there is a confidence in your unique relevance, so there is no worry about becoming obsolete. You simply commit to learning and continually doing your best.

I have found this time and time again. When I can open up, my world opens up and abundance flows us. When I am closed, my world closes down and I experience scarcity.

Spiritual Discipline

Understanding that discipline is a pathway to freedom is a central understanding of abundance consciousness.

Many people think that abundance means you are liberated and free to do what you want. In its healthy form, yes, abundance consciousness is open, creative, confident, spontaneous, unrestrained and in relational exchange with the environment. These qualities arise from an unshakeable confidence and connection in Spirit, and Spirit, being infinite, indestructible and loving, empowers you to live a life of fullness and freedom.

Scarcity consciousness lives off the assumption that its wellbeing and survival is dependent on the world and worldly conditions. When those conditions change in an unfavorable way, scarcity resists and contracts, and experiences fear, doubt and worry. If you lose your job, how do you feel? True abundance will see the perfection of life, an opportunity for growth, and a sense of inner peace that everything is ok. Scarcity will get lost in panic and fear.

The movement from scarcity to abundance means giving up the hold the world of conditions has on your sense of wellbeing. It means giving up the belief that money or relationships, or even health, is responsible for your existence. It means accepting and then embodying the principle that Spirit is your source, your center and the beginning of all that you desire.

This movement from scarcity into abundance is where discipline becomes essential. Gradually you will need to stand firm against the slavery of addictions, compulsions, and selfish drives. You will need to stand firm against the power plays of others.

This is not easy. It can be gut wrenching and soul wrenching work when your deepest beliefs about survival and wellbeing are being bought into awareness and your dependency on the world of conditions is frustrated. This is where you have to stand firm and stay present to the inner tension.

Voluntarily practicing discipline, such as fasting, or endurance training, is an excellent way to build of the muscle required when you will need to stay present to your scarcity consciousness tensions and break there hold on you. Abundance ultimately wants ultimate liberation from the compulsions of the body, because from that place of freedom, the maximum contribution to the world can be expressed, and the maximum embodiment of love, confidence and success can be attained.

“It is for freedom that we were set free. Stand firm, then, and don’t let yourself be burdened again by the yoke of slavery” Galatians 5:1

Smallness

Today as I was swimming I realized how small I was. How puny and weak I was in the face of the giant universe. I felt terrified at my insignificance. I am a grain of sand on a continent of beaches. Now its ok; thank god for the Grace of God.

I wish there was some lesson here. Its hard to write lessons from a place of crushing humility.

The key to abundance

The golden key to abundance is contribution. The world is shifting away from a scarcity based mindset where abundance is consumption and accumulation for self enrichment. The spiritual model is contribution. When you live your life, expressing your developed gifts in such as way as they intersect a need of humanity, you will be financially, emotionally and spiritually abundance in ways you cannot even dream of.