Braving the Hot Mess Synergy of the Spirit, Mind and Body

The Practice That Has Changed My Life

4/17/2018

If I had to pick one practice that has impacted my life the most, it would have to be my prayer practice. Starting and ending my day in prayerful meditation has been life altering. Within my prayer practice I have woven together several of the tools that bring about more joy, peace and happiness. This prayer practice has become my anchor and it has significantly changed my life.

My daily prayer practice includes prayer, affirmations, gratitude, intention setting and meditation. All of the heavy hitters for supporting my day and my life.

For me, prayer is how I connect to God, to Spirit, to my higher-self. It's how I remember, it's my centering force and my guiding light. It's remembering who I am, what my intention is, that I am loved and supported, and all of the blessings that are in my life. Prayer helps to foster my relationship with God.

One of the things that helps me the most is the practice of presence that prayer brings. Prayer pulls me back into the moment and into relationship with myself and with God.

In case it is helpful to you, here is my current personal prayer practice. It is ever evolving, shifting and changing, but this is what it looks like at the moment. This is my "formal" practice, prayer and gratitude are also a spontaneous occurrence throughout my day.

Morning practice (5 to 15 minutes)
I sit down on my meditation pillow and put on some soft mediation music. I start off by saying, "Good morning God, good morning Soul, who am I?" I answer this with several affirming "I am" statements. I am a child of God, I am light, I am love, I am compassionate, I am forgiving, I am grateful, I am enough, I am healthy and well, I am strong, I am creative, I am a servant of God, I am a vessel for God, etc. Doing this helps me to center, to remember, to bring my awareness to my intention.

I then ask, "Where would you have me go? What would you have me do? What would you have me say and to whom?" This opens me up for guidance to seep in.

I then move into gratitude, "I am grateful for the blessings of today. I am grateful for..." and I list as many things that come to mind that I am grateful for.

Next, I further establish my intention for my interactions for the day. I set the intention for each of my interactions to be kind and loving. That God's will be done, that loving thoughts prevail. I briefly work through all of the people that I know I will have interactions with throughout the day and set my intention for loving kindness.

Lastly, I offer up any special requests on behalf of myself and others and end by sending out loving energy toward those who I sense could use some additional loving, positive, healing energy on that day.

At the end, I sit in silence and further meditate for whatever length of time feels right to me on that day. A few times each week I sit in meditation for a longer period of time (up to an hour).

Bedtime practice (2-5 minutes)
When I lay my head down on my pillow at night, I turn my focus to gratitude and then to protection. This practice has been extremely helpful to my ability to swiftly drift off to sleep. This is huge for me, because for a fair chunk of my adult life I suffered from insomnia. "God thank you for the blessings of the day. I am grateful for..." and I list as many things as come to mind that occurred during the day and in my life that I am grateful for.

I end my prayer by asking God to shine his loving and protecting light over me, my loved ones and the whole universe. I then visualize the image of loving light surrounding all of us. It's comforting and it brings my heart peace. That's it and then I drift off to sleep all happy and peaceful.

I am not suggesting that this is how you should pray. Praying is a personal practice and I don't proclaim that my way is the best, or the right way, it's simply what I've found to work for me. If something in there helps to serve you then I am glad to have shared it with you :)

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How Many Other Things Are We Missing?

4/10/2018

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A man sat at a metro station in Washington DC and started to play the violin; it was a cold January morning. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. During that time, since it was rush hour, it was calculated that 1,100 people went through the station, most of them on their way to work.

Three minutes went by, and a middle aged man noticed there was musician playing. He slowed his pace, and stopped for a few seconds, and then hurried up to meet his schedule. A minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip: a woman threw the money in the till and without stopping, and continued to walk.

A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen to him, but the man looked at his watch and started to walk again. Clearly he was late for work. The one who paid the most attention was a 3 year old boy. His mother tagged him along, hurried, but the kid stopped to look at the violinist. Finally, the mother pushed hard, and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time. This action was repeated by several other children. All the parents, without exception, forced them to move on.

In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32.

When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100.

This is a real story. Joshua Bell playing incognito in the metro station was organized by the Washington Post as part of a social experiment about perception, taste, and priorities of people. The outlines were: in a commonplace environment at an inappropriate hour: Do we perceive beauty? Do we stop to appreciate it? Do we recognize the talent in an unexpected context?

One of the possible conclusions from this experience could be: If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing the best music ever written, how many other things are we missing?

I invite you to stop and smell the flowers, to pause and listen to the music, to slow down and witness life happening around you. I invite you to step off the hamster wheel of life and to be more aware, to be present with yourself and those around you. I invite you to set down your phone, to look up from your computer screen and to bear witness to life, to connect with those around you. Let's look up and not miss the beauty that is around us.

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You Are Greater Than Your Thoughts

4/3/2018

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Several of my previous posts have discussed the choice to either live in a beautiful, or in a suffering, state of being. This choice is a conscious decision to manage our mind to keep ourselves from getting stuck in a suffering state. This week I want to share with you some ideas on managing our mind, because our mind can either work for us or against us at any given moment.

We are thinking beings, every moment of every day, our mind is trying to make sense of what we see, hear and experience. Understanding the nature of thought is a critical piece of the puzzle to leading a happy life. Keeping us from getting stuck in a suffering state of being.

Thinking is an ability and it goes on whether we want it to or not. We tend to believe that "thinking" requires time and effort, but thinking about something can occur over several days or within a single second. We tend to place more weight on the "thinking" that happens with time and effort, and dismiss the importance of a more fleeting thought. Feelings follow and respond to thought, regardless of how much time that thought takes. Every feeling (whether negative or positive) is a direct result of thought. For example, it is impossible to have sad feelings without first having sad thoughts.

Richard Carlson in his book, You Can Be Happy No Matter What, explains it this way, "If you have the thought, 'My boss doesn't appreciate me...I never get the recognition I deserve,' the fact that you now feel bad about your job came about as soon as that thought came to mind. It all takes place in an instant. The time it takes to feel the effects of your thinking is the same amount of time it takes to see the light after turning on the switch."

He goes on to say, "The ill effects of thought come about when we forget that 'thought' is a function of our consciousness...an ability that we as human beings have. We are the producers of our own thinking. Thought is not something that happens to us, but something that we do. It comes from inside of us, not from the outside. What we think determines what we see...even though it often seems the other way around."

Sometimes it's easy to forget that we are in charge of our thinking and that it's our thinking, not our circumstances, that determines how we feel. We tend to blame our unhappiness on our circumstances, which makes us feel powerless over our lives. Now you might be thinking to yourself that some of life's circumstances make our reality suck which in turn makes our thoughts suck.

As Carlson states, "We have innocently learned to interpret our thoughts as if they were 'reality,' but thought is merely an ability that we have...we are the ones who produce those thoughts. It's easy to believe that because we think something, the object of our thinking (the content) represents reality. When we realize that thinking is an ability rather than a reality, we can dismiss any negative thoughts that pass through. Only thought brings meaning to a circumstance."

When we think about something, we can choose whether we take the thoughts to heart and react in a negative way, or choose to let them pass through. We can pick and choose which thoughts we wish to react to. We don't have to take everything so seriously, we can lighten up. We can choose to practice some of the other tools in our toolbox like empathy, forgiveness, looking for the lesson and the silver lining, etc. We can choose to have that childlike quality which brings back curiosity, wonder and adventure into our lives.

This childlike quality will allow us to listen to people and to our thoughts in a more loving way without letting every negative thought bother us. Because ultimately, the relationship that we have with our own thinking determines our mental health and happiness. Not every thought needs to be taken seriously, analyzed and construed as reality. We can choose which thoughts to act on and which to let pass through, we can choose to not be victimized by our own thinking, we can choose to keep ourselves safe from our own selves.

What do you think about thinking being an ability from which our feelings are derived? Or, about the idea that thinking is an ability rather than reality? I would love to hear your thoughts :) on this post. Please drop me a comment or send me an email.

Michael Neill gives a funny and informative TED Talk about our thoughts called "Why Aren't We Awesomer?". Check it out at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xr6VawX2nr4

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Forgiveness Is A Process

3/21/2018

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Have you ever struggled with forgiveness? I certainly have. Holding onto grudges, resentments, anger and bitterness, ruminating over our stories of past hurts and injustice can quickly rob us of our peace and happiness.

Forgiveness is not as easy as just deciding to forgive is it? It's not as easy as one day just deciding...today I am going to extend forgiveness. Funny thing is, I've tried to do that and the sneaky resentment and anger eventually reared it's ugly head again. Blah!!!

I read an article on Oprah.com written by Maria Shriver where she discusses her book, I've Been Thinking..., and how she learned to let go of the anger and pain that others caused her. I really enjoyed the article and her perspective on the process of forgiveness, so I wanted to share it with you.

I've found that a lot of the spiritual practices that I am working on follow a process similar to what she recommends. I hope her thoughts serve you.

Maria Shriver: Forgiving the People Who Have Hurt You

Take it from me: If you're struggling with forgiveness, be gentle with yourself, because I've learned that forgiveness is a process, and it takes time.

What is forgiveness? It's letting go of a resentment, giving up feeling harmed or damaged. That doesn't mean the harm or damage didn't happen. It means that you're not going to keep revisiting it over and over again, staying stuck in your resentment of the person who caused the harm. Even if it's you.

I've prayed for help with forgiveness. I've tried to talk myself into it. And often, I've pushed myself to the forgiveness finish line before I was really ready to take the action of actually forgiving, only to find myself right back where I started: resentful and feeling bad.

So, to truly get to the place I wanted to be—which was to be a steady, solid, peaceful, forgiving person—I started with myself.

When I found myself berating myself for choices I made, opportunities I missed, people I misjudged, behaviors I condoned, the whole thing—I stopped. "No more." I started being kind to myself. Over and over again.

Once I started easing up on myself in this way, I found myself being able to ease up on others. I realized that what I needed, so did they. If I had made mistakes and deserved to be forgiven, so, too, did they. If I had hurt another and could be forgiven and move on, so, too, could they. If I had been critical and judgmental of someone and could be forgiven, so, too, could they.

In other words, if I could let go of my resentments and judgments of myself, I could and should let go of my resentments and judgments of others and just plain move on, instead of staying stuck. I had to give what I was seeking for myself.

Forgiveness is letting go of the need to feel like a victim. Work on it. You'll lighten your load—the load of negativity you carry around.

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International Day Of Happiness

3/20/2018

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Today is International Day of Happiness and it's also the first day of spring and the spring equinox...what a cool day it is!!!

This morning I was listening to a podcast on how to lead a more resilient, healthy and joyful life. The key suggestions from the doctors and scientists go back to many of the practices that I believe in, practice and teach. These practices serve to retrain our brain, a re-wiring of our brain from a negativity bias to a more positive, hopeful and ultimately happier state of being.

Research shows that only 10% of our long-term happiness is based on external factors, the remaining 90% of our long-term happiness is based on how our brain processes things. Neurons that fire together wire together. What we think about actually changes the neuro structure. We can be in charge of changing our own brain.

Dr. Rick Hanson, a neuropsychologist, is well known for his work on happiness. He says that we are programmed for negativity bias. He calls this the "caveman brain". It's part of what helped our ancestors survive in more primitive times. He states that positive thoughts need to remain in our short-term memory for several seconds, several times, in order to move into our long-term memory, whereas negative thoughts go straight to long-term memory. He gives this analogy, "The brain is like velcro for negative experiences and like teflon for positive ones". He suggests that we savor the good facts and experiences for 10 seconds or more and to make it as intense as possible. Let a good fact become a good experience. This exercise will cause our brains to take that positive thought and store it in our long-term memory.

Today can serve as a reminder for us of how important these practices are to living a life of resiliency and well-being. Without these daily practices, it's easy for us to direct our focus to all of the things that are going wrong and all of the areas where we feel lack. It takes intentionality to offset this by practices that help our brain focus on the good.

So what are some key habits that we can build into our daily life to bring about more positive thoughts in our brain?

Gratitude
Each day find three new things your are grateful for and describe in detail why. I like to start and end my day with gratitude. A gratitude journal is a useful tool to accomplish this, but it can be done without a journal. Gratitude changes the lens through which we see the world. It's a game-changer and a miracle creator. When feeling grateful you feel more open, generous, connected, aware and alive.

Savor
Identify one meaningful experience you’ve had in the past 24 hours and write it down in as great of detail as you can. Savoring the positive experience will help to shift it into long-term memory and condition the brain to look for the positive. Let the sun shine bright for the good stuff as long as you possibly can.

Mindfulness
Mindfulness is happiness. Spend a few minutes at the beginning of your day being still. Set your intention for the day toward loving kindness, toward being happy, toward positivity. Then throughout the day set reminders for yourself to be present, to be aware and to pay attention. When we aren't attentive to what we are currently doing, we are often times drudging up negative things from the past.

Connection
A sense of community and true, deep social connections are triggers for happiness. Joy comes from connection to others. Find opportunities to authentically connect with others, to be of service to others, to spread loving kindness.

The experts on happiness all speak to similar common core elements to achieving happiness. These elements are not external to our environment, they are internal and something that we very much have the ability to influence.

Studies show that happy people experience a 23% reduction in stress, a 39% increase in health, a 31% increase in productivity and have 34% more positive social interaction. It pays huge dividends to be happy!

Being happy and practicing happiness hygiene will cause a ripple effect to those around you. People desire to be around others who exude happiness. The vibration, the energy of a happy person is contagious, and it raises up the vibration and energy of everyone around. Let's all practice happiness hygiene and savor the positive experiences in our lives. Our world needs more happiness, more light to shine around. Take charge of your own happiness and see and feel the changes in your life. With happiness the more you have the more everyone has.

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Spring Into Action

3/13/2018

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Here in Wisconsin we are experiencing the return of the robins. Have you seen them? Have you heard them singing? In a state that experiences a long winter, the return of the robin signifies the beginning of spring. It’s typically a time where we have a spring in our step, coming out from the dark cold winter months feeling hopeful and reenergized to see the reemergence of green, of light and of life.

Feeling the renewing energy of spring, yesterday I cleaned out two drawers. I’m not just talking about your ordinary size drawer. I am talking double-wide, double-long, double-high drawers full of old art projects, coloring books, crayons, markers, colored pencils and craft supplies all jumbled together in a big hot mess.

Have I mentioned that all of my kids are now over the age of 15? Yes, it was time, besides I need the space to store my own projects now. I was excited to get started and yet the thought of getting started was painful. That first step of diving in, not knowing where to start and with the knowledge that it’s going to get worse before gets better.

I've found that it helps to break it down into small more manageable chunks and then to just get started. The amazing thing that happens is that it’s not quite as painful as I anticipated. Once I get started, a feeling of empowerment spurs me on to doing more and more until the project is not only complete, but I've even taken it a step further than what I had initially planned.

Have you noticed when that same thing has happened for you? It’s the beautiful thing about just taking the first small step and the rest usually unfolds with more ease and you begin to feel energized and renewed.

What is it you want to spring into action right now? Maybe you want to...

Spring into a mindfulness practice
Spring into cleaning
Spring into decluttering
Spring into a new hobby
Spring into exercising
Spring into a new book
Spring into social change

Whatever it might me for you, let the site and sound of the robins serve as an invitation to spring into action. Shake off the winter blues and get into the action. During the winter I would typically hibernate starting at 5 pm, now that we are moving into spring it's lighter out later, the days feel longer and full of energy. It's time to spring into action!

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The "If Only" Habit

3/6/2018

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Have you ever played the "If only" game? You know the one, I would be/I will be happy if only this happens, or if only that happens.

If only my spouse would such and such
If only I had the right partner
If only I had a different job
If only I could sleep a little bit more
If only I had more time
If only I was really healthy
If only I could get home before the traffic starts
If only, if only, if only...

Keeping happiness at bay because of the "If only" syndrome. Pushing off your happiness until the status of things in your life or your world change. Sound at all familiar?

Clinical psychologist, mindfulness and spiritual teacher Tara Brach recently did a podcast on joy. Tara said, "We are in a trance of wanting life different. It shouldn't be like it is, it should be different to be okay. It takes two forms, either something is missing right now, we need something more to be full, or it needs to be different because something is wrong."

Something is missing...the "If only" mind. If only I had such and such I'd be okay. If only's don't work. A lot of times they come up because we are comparing ourselves to others. Playing the comparison game.

When we are playing the "If only" game we are doing what Tara Brach calls, leaning forward. As Tara says, "When it's a habit we are always on our way somewhere else. We always think we should be doing something else. And when it's a habit, we will get to the end of our life and have 'If onlyed' ourselves to death." This is when people are on their death bed and having regrets. Regretting that they didn't allow themselves to be happy. Always seeking and searching for something instead of making the choice to be happy now.

The other side of the trance is when we are in the something's wrong mode. We are in this mode when we are blaming other people for what they are doing wrong, holding a resentment. Our inability to forgive correlates with our inability to experience joy and happiness. The trance of there's something wrong with you or with the world.

Then there's the something's wrong with me. The trance of unworthiness, or of I'm not enough. We can't love life when we are in this mode. It can be a life habit of turning on ourselves and blocking our joy.

If we are honest with ourselves, until we are aware and consciously start to work on shifting the focus of our thoughts, they tend to focus on worrying, planning, judging, on lack, on what's missing and what's wrong.

Bringing our awareness to these habits, these modes of operation, helps us to remove the hook. Just being aware that we are doing it and what its impact is would be half the battle. Once you are aware, you can make the choice to choose again, to create a different habit, to shift your mindset.

Practicing gratitude and mindfulness also help us to shift our mindset out from this trance. Mindfulness keeps us in the present moment bringing awareness to our thoughts and keeping them from worrying about the past and the present. Gratitude gives us perspective and reminds us of all of the goodness we already have in our lives.

I invite you to move from the "If only", something's missing, and something's wrong mode of operation and into a place of mindfulness, gratitude, joy and happiness.

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LOVE Versus Fear

2/26/2018

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Each year for the month of February my blog posts focus on the theme of love. This week I want to share with you some additional thoughts that are circling around in my head regarding love as opposed to fear.

What I have personally come to understand and witness is how much of life is directed by fear and not love. I believe that fear is the opposite of love and that we are cultured to operate from a place fear. We are not cultured to operate from a place of love. Fear wants us to restrict, it doesn't want us to expand. Fear is from the ego mind and love comes from the heart.

Blogger Luminita Saviuc explains it this way, "There are only two emotions in the world, only two emotions we can express, and those two emotions are FEAR and LOVE. All the other emotions with whom we are all so familiar, are nothing more than subcategories of these two. Where there is LOVE, we may have peace, joy, content, serenity, forgiveness while on the other hand, where we have hate we will have anxiety, sadness, depression, fatigue, judgment, guilt and so on. You see, where there is LOVE, fear can not survive, and where there is fear, LOVE can not survive. They can’t live together, for only one is real, while the other is just an illusion."

This acronym for fear has really been useful for me:

F - false
E - expectations
A - appearing
R - real

This is typically the case for most things in life. Our mind and our ego try to convince us to operate from a place of fear when really fear is usually false expectations appearing real. Our minds though work to exaggerate scenarios and cause us to believe that we need to protect ourselves, or avoid something, or worry, etc.

I believe that what our world needs more of right now is love and not fear. All things break and all things can be mended. We need to love intentionally, extravagantly and unconditionally. Infusing loving kindness into everything we do and every interaction that we have. Collective love, empathy and compassion will dissolve collective fear, anger and hate.

As Mother Theresa said, "There are no great deeds, just small deeds done with great love". Let's each go out and do small deeds with great love. Let's expand into love instead of contract into fear. Let's hold the vision by taking a lot of little right actions in the direction of love. Love is a choice, just as fear is a choice.

Here is a poem that captures the essence of the difference that occurs in life when we LOVE versus when we fear.

LOVE Versus Fear
By Sarah Nean Bruce

LOVE IS UNCONDITIONAL (fear is conditional)
LOVE IS STRONG (fear is weak)
LOVE RELEASES (fear obligates)
LOVE SURRENDERS (fear binds)
LOVE IS HONEST (fear is deceitful)
LOVE TRUSTS (fear suspects)
LOVE ALLOWS (fear dictates)
LOVE GIVES (fear resists)
LOVE FORGIVES (fear blames)
LOVE IS COMPASSIONATE (fear pities)
LOVE CHOOSES (fear avoids)
LOVE IS KIND (fear is angry)
LOVE IGNITES (fear incites)
LOVE EMBRACES (fear repudiates)
LOVE CREATES (fear negates)
LOVE HEALS (fear hurts)
LOVE IS MAGIC (fear is superstitious)
LOVE ENERGIZES (fear saps)
LOVE IS AN ELIXIR (fear is a poison)
LOVE INSPIRES (fear worries)
LOVE DESIRES (fear Joneses)
LOVE IS PATIENT (fear is nervous)
LOVE IS BRAVE (fear is afraid)
LOVE IS RELAXED (fear is pressured)
LOVE IS BLIND (fear is judgmental)
LOVE RESPECTS (fear disregards)
LOVE ACCEPTS (fear rejects)
LOVE DREAMS (fear schemes)
LOVE WANTS TO PLAY (fear needs to control)
LOVE ENJOYS (fear suffers)
LOVE FREES (fear imprisons)
LOVE BELIEVES (fear deceives)
LOVE “WANTS” (fear “needs”)

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Nourishing The Human Spirit

2/20/2018

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Sherwin Nuland in his TED talk, Meditation on Hope, proclaimed that, "The world will be saved by the human spirit. The ability that each of us has to be something greater than him or herself. The ability to arise from our ordinary self to be something greater, something extraordinary, something that we once believed we weren't capable of. It's an elevation of us beyond ourselves."

I love this idea of the human spirit and the elevation of us beyond ourselves. Can you think of a time where you felt elevated beyond yourself? Maybe at the birth of a child. Maybe as you were participating as part of a team where you just gelled together and accomplished a great feat. Maybe as you were engaged in a some type of musical venue that lifted you up, or a church service, a motivational talk, or a rally. That feeling of elevation where you felt you were part of something and it raised you up.

Those moments are special, they stick with us, they fill up our soul, they propel us to greatness, they nourish us, they give us hope. I think all of our spirits could use some hope and some nourishment right now. What gives you hope? What nourishes your spirit? It's important that we each are filling up our spirit these days, so we can continue to spread hope and love out into the world and so that we can continue to elevate ourselves and others from the ordinary into the extraordinary.

In his TED talk, Sherwin Nuland also dissected the word hope. I really enjoy and find it useful to look at the root meaning of words, it provides me with a deeper meaning that I otherwise would have missed. Hope is an abstract idea, it's not a concrete word. It's defined as an expectation of something good that's due to happen.

The Indo-European root of the word hope is the stem 'keu', it is the same root that the word curve (to bend) comes from. What is means is a change in direction, going a different way. Changing course, taking a different path.

It's hard to have hope when things aren't changing direction, when we're operating in the status quo and not shifting course. It's like the old adage of the definition of insanity...doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The Hebrew and Greek equivalent of our English word hope carries the meaning of a strong and confident expectation. Putting the Indo-European root and the Hebrew and Greek equivalent together, creates the meaning of the word hope as a confident expectation that a desirable change is likely to happen. I like that definition of hope. What if each of us nourish our spirit and spread hope by helping to confidently change the direction of where we are going?

Sherwin Nuland also discussed the word philanthropy. The Greek concept of philanthropy is the love of human kind. Philanthropy arises out of a form of love. Spirit, hope, love. The world will be saved by the human spirit of hope and love for human kind.

I invite you to nourish your spirit by doing what elevates you to greatness, to spread hope by being the change you desire to see in the world, to be philanthropic and spread your love of human kind, nourishing humanity as you nourish your own spirit. Be confident and lead with your heart, your inner wisdom. Let the truth of your being match the way of your being.

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What Is The Purpose Of Life?

2/13/2018

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Most of us have spent time contemplating, and even agonizing over...what is the purpose of life and/or the purpose of my life? I know that I have.

I propose that the purpose of life is actually quite simple...simple and yet oh so very hard. I propose that the purpose of life is love. Yep, that's it, easy peasy, just love. All of the challenges and lessons of life boil down to love. Have I responded or reacted to my experience in life in a loving way? Do you agree?

Have you heard someone say, "May God's will be done", or "Thy will be done"? It's in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." Ever stop to really think about what that sentence means? I really hadn't until I was recently listening to Marianne Williamson. I'm guessing that most of us would say that it means letting God handle things according to his plan. Putting our own will aside and seeking God's will instead.

Marianne Williamson's explanation takes a little different spin on the phrase. She explained it this way, "God equals love and will equals thought. 'May God's will be done' means loving thoughts. Let loving thoughts prevail." Interesting spin right?

Maybe this phrase was included in the Lord's Prayer in order to help us align our thinking and actions with God's purpose and plan for us. Is it God's will for us to change from our human way of thinking and acting (which at times are not in harmony with God's way) to thinking and acting like God? To model our thoughts and actions to that of the example of Jesus? Would earth be like heaven if we all did that?

Sometimes it can be easy to recite prayer without stopping to contemplate what it really means. It can be easy enough to even believe in something, but then not behave differently. So then I ask myself, are we called to just believe, but not then to adjust our actions? Is our purpose really love? And if it is, maybe I should add to my prayers something like "May god's will be done...and let me accept God's will". Because as I mentioned, it's simple and yet oh so hard.

Isn't it easy for us to convince ourselves of the many reasons and excuses for why in this particular scenario God's will is not the way? That our purpose may be love, but that it doesn't quite apply here because this was said or done and it therefore negates God's will (i.e. loving thoughts). We let our ego jump in and then fear jumps in and we think and act from a place that often times isn't of love.

Here is a beautiful piece by Wayne Dyer that arrived oh so timely in my inbox this morning. Wayne shares his thoughts on love, lovingness and our ego. It's worth the read :)

My definition of love goes beyond the admittedly delicious lust and excitement that you experience when you first become infatuated. Ultimately these inflamed passions fade away, and what remains is authentic love, or the balance you’re seeking. And what is a prime example of this? It is to love as God does—to extend the caring that defines your very creation outward, whenever and wherever possible.

Love of this nature leads you to forget about your own ego, and want what you desire for yourself even more for another. This is how the act of creation seems to work. Your Creator doesn’t ask anything from you in exchange for giving you life— it’s given freely and abundantly, and no one is excluded. You don’t have to repay God for giving you this life or the air you need in order to live or the water you drink for your very existence or the sun that sustains you. Without any of those freely given ingredients, you wouldn’t continue to live. This is the love that God offers you.

To balance your life with more lovingness, you need to match your thoughts and behaviors with those of your Source, being love in the way that God is. This means noticing when you’re inclined to judge yourself or others as though you or they are unworthy of love. This means suspending your need to be right in favor of being kind toward yourself and others, and deliberately extending kindness everywhere. This means giving love to yourself and others rather than demanding love. This means your loving gesture of kindness is heartfelt because you feel love flowing from within—not because you want something in return. A tall order? Not really, unless you believe that it’s going to be difficult.

Lovingness is a feature of your natural state, and your ego isn’t part of that state. Ego dominates because you’ve separated yourself from your God-self, the loving self that came here from a place of perfectly Divine unconditional love. You’ve carried this ego idea of your own self-importance, your need to be right, for so long that you’ve deluded yourself into believing that the ego-self is who you are. Talk about being out of balance—you’ve opted for a belief in pure illusion! By allowing this illusion to be the dominant force, you’ve created, through your ego-centered self, a heavy imbalance in your life.

The result is that you want to feel love—the real thing, the love that is the very essence of your being, the love that you are—but you feel emptiness instead of lovingness. Why is this so? Because the emptiness can only be filled with love by opening your heart connection to the spirit of love that originates you know not where, but can be felt within you. It’s your empty space; no one else’s. Therefore, only you can fill it. Your objective is to ask love within you to make its presence known, to have an awareness of being so full of love that this is what you have to give away. That’s all you have to do—ask and receive. By doing just that, you’ll attract more of what you’re giving away.

What Love Looks Like Through the Eyes of a Child

Here are some jewels describing what love is, from the perspective of a group of four- to eight-year-olds. As you work to reset the “love balance beam” of your life, consider these refreshing thoughts on what love is.

When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know your name is safe in their mouth.
Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.
Love is when my daddy makes coffee for my mommy, and he takes a sip before giving it to her to make sure the taste is okay.
Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.
During my piano recital, I was onstage and I was scared. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one. I wasn’t scared anymore.

And my favorite:

Love is what’s in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.

There you have it. Look within and around. Listen. Love is what’s left over when falling in love fades away because love is an endless source. Give it away. Share your French fries. Give someone the best piece of chicken. Wave and smile to the Universe, and you’ll soon know what Victor Hugo meant when he observed, “Love is the reduction of the Universe to a single being.” Not only is love what’s left over when falling in love fades away, but love defines the Source from which we came. Elizabeth Barrett Browning poetically describes the end of life as a return to pure love:

Guess now who holds thee?--
“Death,” I said. But there
The silver answer rang--
“Not Death, but Love.”
And so it seems that love is truly all that’s left over when this body falls away as well.

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