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How Do You See Your Life? How Does Your Helpful Self See Your Life?

by Rev. Mary Gerard Lenihan, O.M.C.

Do you ever notice those thoughts in your mind telling you all the things wrong with you and your life? I do. As a Pause for Inspiration Mentor, I run across a lot of people who do too! We tend to think we are alone in having these thoughts; we’re not. Thoughts telling you that there is no hope for you, you’ve made too many wrong turns, why bother, it’s too late for me, etc., are favorite one-liners of this me-jokester. But we don’t have to believe the words of this confounded joker.

Yesterday, I was about to do some simple movements to help calm my mind and wring out accumulated stress. I always begin with a Pause for Inspiration, and in this one pause, I received the following suggestion from My Helpful Self, “Let go of your perceptions and judgments of you and your life.”

WOW! This was a direct solution to a problem so many of us roll over again and again in our minds. The list of negative opinions we have about ourselves and the lives we live — a dirty laundry list from this cubicle mind who is always gossiping about us to ourselves! I can forget about what I think anyone else thinks of who I am and look at the nonsense and lies I am thinking and believing about who I am. 

In that momentary Pause for Inspiration I was shown how easily I can make my day miserable or peaceful by choosing to not listen to that me-character who is by the way, constantly assessing itself, analyzing itself, sizing itself up and down, and comparing itself to others.

Your Helpful Self has a whole different view of you. So, switch out the headphones playing such greatest hits as, “Something is wrong with me and my life.” How?

Instructions For Switching Out Headphones: Pick up a Pause for Inspiration practice card, read it and be willing to be easily guided out of hassling yourself and into Accepting Your Helpful Self. If the new headphones seemed to have failed, repeat instructions.

A student of Pause for Inspiration courageously shared his experience after being guided through, “Getting to Know Your Helpful Self.” He shared that at first it felt weird to open to connecting with his Helpful Self, but his experience shifted from feeling weird to feeling comfortable as he realized that his Helpful Self is him!

So, who has time to Pause for Inspiration? One student dealing with impatience shared how after asking her Helpful Self, “What will be truly helpful now?” she saw herself staying with someone through a conversation even when she felt like bolting out the door. She could practice Pause to be present and listen to another. She also had the insight that this practice is like “multitasking and meditating at the same time!”

She is right on! I don’t have to stop doing the things I need to do to Pause for Inspiration. I can pause in motion with my helpful self!

Rev. Mary Gerard Lenihan is a Pathways of Light minister living in St. Louis, MO.
Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Website: http://www.pauseforinspiration.org      Now available pocket-sized cards: Kids Can Pause, Parents Can Pause, Teachers Can Pause. There also is a new book, “Kids can Pause for Help …and Parents too!  Get to Know Your Helpful Self”

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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Letting Our True Self Lead

by Elizabeth Hurwitz, Ministerial Candidate

Our greatest challenge to staying in Peace, chaos free, is to retain the memory of our deepest truth. It is indeed not easy to keep this precious gem close to our hearts continually. The world throws questions, situations where once again we believe the reality of the events and the truth fades at those times. As we relax, focus on peace and love, always strive to look beyond appearances or our individual perceptions, and insist on only looking all the way to the inner light/unity, we can retain this truth.

With a relaxed, easy attitude that is easygoing and a no-sweat mentality allowing fun and joyfulness we truly live as God created us to. We are not to take anything too seriously (dreams are but dreams). Willingness to release the need for perfection, self criticism and all “not good enough” beliefs gives us Holy Spirit’s continual guidance and stops the ego in its tracks. Remembering that life is but a dream, we the dreamer, truly opens the key to a life of peace and joy while giving us back our power to create dreams of our heart.

Let us ask our true Self to write the script and guide us to extend love each moment. By persistent, gentle focus we can let our true Self lead and change the dream to one of joy, peace and tranquility.

Elizabeth Hurwitz is a Pathways of Light ministerial Candidate living in Norwood, MA. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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A Lesson on Impatience from My Inner Guidance

by Rev. Barbara Goodman Siegel, O.M.C.

My lesson on impatience came while I was meditating on A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson 151 –“All things are echoes of the Voice for God.” The lesson says, in essence, to give God all the thoughts that come into your mind while you are meditating on this main thought and let them be purified.

What kept coming into my mind was my anger at an individual (who I will call Sue) that I had been with at a meeting the evening before I did this lesson. Sue, in my ego mind, had displayed considerable impatience with me while I was sharing and I felt myself reacting with anger. I didn’t like these thoughts of anger toward Sue and I asked to see what they were about and to have them “purified.” Below is the conversation I had with my Inner Guide.

Guide: Here is your lesson: Impatience is unloving. It makes the recipient feel unworthy, unloved and unlovable. This is a lesson for you to see what impatience does because, as you know, you have a tendency to be impatient and I want to help you heal that. So thank Sue for her impatience as it teaches you directly what you are doing when you are impatient. That is all the lesson is for. It is not to make you feel less than or unlovable. Sue certainly wouldn’t say you are unlovable. Remember, anger is there to make the other person feel guilty. You want to make Sue guilty for being impatient with you.

Me: But she always seems to want to disagree with me or one up me when I share a thought. Purify that please.

Guide: Again, anger. We will not analyze her needs which, like yours, have not been totally healed. So, even if she is doing this, the “Why” is none of your business. Your business is to not to react from your ego and project guilt onto Sue for that is judgment. And, in the same vain, do not project guilt toward yourself for your ego reaction either, for that is judgment also.

The anger you allowed to happen from what you perceived as Sue’s impatience came from your ego’s interpretation that said that her impatience meant that what you were sharing was unworthy of everyone’s time. Then the ego, which is very good at manipulating your old beliefs about yourself, turned the thought of unworthy into your being unloved and unlovable. Amazing, isn’t it that all of this could come from an egoic interpretation of someone being impatient? You felt you lost your “Mo Jo.” Actually, that was just your ego reacting and she let the air out of it. That is good. Now come back to Me being your Voice and your Guide and not your ego. All is well. Good lesson!

Me: Thank you! Yes, that was a great lesson and I truly no longer feel any anger toward Sue. She enabled me to have a very deep understanding of what my impatience does and I am very grateful to her.

Rev. Barbara Goodman Siegel, author of “Finding Your Self in the Mirror: Awakening Through Mirror Affirmations for the 365 Lessons of A Course in Miracles O.M.C. is a Pathways of Light minister living in St. Louis, MO. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  Web: Barbaragoodmansiegel.com

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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Heaven Is the Decision I Must Make

by Rev. Maria Kingsley, O.M.C.

Heaven, what is Heaven to me? To me, Heaven is Life itself, and so I want to be sure to know how to choose Life. I have recognized at times that Life is the Oneness with Spirit that brings me joy, freedom, peace of mind and all Guidance in the many different situations I find myself in. But I need to choose to be connected more often, more certainly; I want to remember where all things come from. And so I decide that Heaven is my Life. And yet, I don’t always remember to choose or decide. How do I stay connected and feel the clarity of Life with me at all times?

In Lesson 138 we are clearly told that we need to make a decision, and it must be for Heaven. This lesson describes how we will come to make the right decision, and what the path to Heaven is while we are in bodies.

I can say, with my small mind, that I make a decision and it is for Heaven. However, it is not just a simple thought that I can follow and stick with easily because the ego will have no part of it. I first need to gain control of my desires and know what I truly value, and I have not put any discipline into learning how to do this. The ego is much better at following its ways, and we are familiar and comfortable with this. How can we choose to follow our divine Guidance when the ego is so quick to mislead us, so insidious in its ways to deceive us, so vicious in attacking our true thoughts, and so pervasive in our mind and feelings while hiding its own goals and objectives? It takes effort on my part to take control away from that ‘thought of separation’ and again trust the Oneness of Heaven. 

First, we need to unlearn all that we thought we needed to know, all that we think keeps us safe, brings us the attention and love we thought we needed from our parents and the world around us. We have already decided what that is, and we trust our decisions we made with our small mind, usually as children, and on our own. We first have to realize that we did not get what we wanted. And then choose to make the right decision.

How can we make decisions we are still unclear about, don’t know really where it will lead, and then to stick to them?

Lesson 138, 1:3 says: “If Heaven exits, there must be hell as well, for contradiction is the way we make what we perceive, and what we think is real.”

And so we have to remember that we are in hell, but there seem to be two choices: Heaven or hell; love and fear are two different worlds which cannot join, and so we have two choices. However, how do we know that we choose the right one when it is sometimes not clear at all whether we are in hell or Heaven — because some part of our lives can feel like heaven temporarily, yet we have just been deceived?

Lesson 138, 2:1-8 continues: Creation knows no opposite. But here is opposition part of being ‘real.’ It is this strange perception of the truth that makes the choice of Heaven seem to be the same as the relinquishment of hell. It is not really thus. Yet what is true in God’s creation cannot enter here until it is reflected in some form the world can understand. Truth cannot come where it could only be perceived with fear. For this would be the error (that) truth can be brought to illusions. Opposition makes the truth unwelcome, and it cannot come.”

When we are faced with the decision to choose Heaven, we often think that we have to give up our lives, to sacrifice something we hold dear, to be afraid of the unknown that may be the real hell. We’ve accepted the idea that we have some kind of control over our lives; that we have learned well and we can rely on our learning from the past and so we feel at least familiar with the choices we have made so far.

What we seem to not fully realize is that Heaven has only the best and happiest of experiences in mind for us. It will guide us, protect us, tell us what to do, where to go, what to say and to whom, and be with us closer than our own breath. And yet, we need to learn that we want to follow guidance and trust the Holy Spirit. And that means we decide, we make the choice for Life, for Heaven.

“Choosing depends on learning. And the truth cannot be learned, but only recognized. In recognition its acceptance lies, and as it is accepted it is known. …Ours are teaching goals, to be attained through learning how to reach them, what they are, and what they offer you. Decisions are the outcome of your learning, for they rest on what you have accepted as the truth of what you are, and what your needs must be.” (W-pI.138.5.1-3, 5-6)

This tells me that I need to pay attention to my experiences, to be curious what will happen whether I decide for love or fear, or even whether I have decided to follow fear or love. The goal of Heaven is achieved by learning what the results are, what I truly want, what my needs must be. And who is asking these questions? When I can see that my Identity is not with my personality, my body, this physical life, then I can find ways to help me be more confident in choosing for Life, for my true Self.

The first 50 lessons of the Workbook are so helpful to recognize the truth. Among the many lessons, we learn and find out that we cannot rely on our old learning, on our small self, or on the ego, who just wants to keep us in the dark. We truly don’t know what anything means. Our thoughts are meaningless and preoccupied with the past and we are never upset for the reason we think are just a few of these lessons’ teachings.

At some point we begin to see that we are frequently choosing the wrong path. We begin to see that our fears, maybe anger, maybe embarrassment or anxiety have not taken us to where we want to go, and we are experiencing more and more problems in our lives. And so we begin to consider our choices. Time is on our side here, because that is what time is for. We walk slowly; we take baby steps and try to discern as best as we can, asking for guidance, listening and making some progress.

“Heaven is chosen consciously. The choice cannot be made until alternatives are accurately seen and understood. All that is veiled in shadows must be raised to understanding, to be judged again, this time with Heaven’s help. And all mistakes in judgment that the mind had made before are open to correction, as the truth dismisses them as causeless. Now are they without effects.” (W-pI.138.9:1-5)

This is what our journey through this earthly experience is. Life has been veiled and hidden, creating shadows in our mind. We are on an exploration of the truth. We must ask for Help in clearing our mind, in overcoming our fears of what we may find. All judgments we have of ourselves and others must be questioned and corrected. These are the anchors that hold us down, the hidden pulls that make us vacillate and fluctuate in our desires and allow old habits to trip us up.

“There is nothing so frustrating to a learner as a curriculum he cannot learn. His sense of adequacy suffers, and he must become depressed. Being faced with an impossible learning situation is the most depressing thing in the world. In fact, it is ultimately why the world itself is depressing. The Holy Spirit’s curriculum is never depressing, because it is a curriculum of joy. Whenever the reaction to learning is depression, it is because the true goal of the curriculum has been lost sight of.” (T-8.VII.8)

It is Joy that I want. I have learned that Joy is like pure currency: it gives me energy, it uplifts my mood, it clears my head, and I hear Guidance much better.

And so the Lesson ends with this:

“Heaven is the decision I must make. I make it now, and will not change my mind, because it is the only thing I want.” (W-pI.138.12:5-6)

And should I slide into doubting, Jesus suggests these lines:

I must have decided wrongly because I am not at peace.

I made the decision myself, but I can also decide otherwise.

I will to decide otherwise, because I want to be at peace.

I do not feel guilty, because the Holy Spirit will undo all the consequences of my wrong decision if I will let Him.

I choose to let Him, by allowing Him to decide for God for me.” (T-5.VII.6:7-11)

And so I choose Life; I choose Heaven for it will bring me what I truly want.

Rev. Maria Kingsley is a Pathways of Light minister living in Tucson, Arizona. Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)  P.O. Box 35122 520-780-0170

© 2019, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
You may freely share copies of this with your friends, provided this notice and website address are included.

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