We experience what we believe!

[MajestyJo]

We experience what we believe

"You are free to believe what you choose and what you do attests to what you believe."

-- A Course of Miracles

You most likely believe that your experiences have taught you what is real and what is true – at least for you. However, what you may not know is that your beliefs – conscious and unconscious – have determined what you would experience.

Experiences do not determine what you believe. What you first of all believe is what you will experience. It follows, then, that if you wish to experience life in new ways, you need to examine your belief systems.

Change your consciousness and you’ll change your life.

“Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.”

-- Richard Bach

Higher Awareness - used with permission

It is the God of your understanding. I had to rethink God and who and what He meant to me. I thought I had a lot of anger toward Him when in fact, my anger was at the church. Then I realized that I could change the church and find one I felt comfortable in. Then I found that a lot of them didn't measure up because they complicated God and the simple faith and church of my childhood had been a strong foundation and a lot had been my interruptation and the real problem had been me.

The church was built by my grandfather who was a travelling minister. It had wood wainscotting around the bottom of the walls. The windows were opaque. There were no pews, just wooden chairs and a simple wooden pulpit. There was a black wood stove in the middle of the room to keep us warm and Sunday mornings we sat around it for the communion service. there was a piano and the place was filled with beautiful music. On prayer meeting night, people would just stand up from where they sat and say a prayer. It was from the heart and spontaneous and not from a book.

There was no minister at our church, just layman who took turns carrying the message and dealing with the finances and the running of the church. I realized that it prepared me for AA and accepting the structure, the only difference, was there was all the rules and regulations that go with church and the mind(s) were not as open like I found in AA.

I never lost my belief. What I did gain was a spiritual outlook that included others.

When I think of it all, I think of the slogan, "Keep It Simple."

[MajestyJo]

"Instead of resisting any emotion, the best way to dispel it is to enter it fully, embrace it and see through your resistance."

-- Deepak Chopra

They say we need to feel the feelings in order to let them go. Resisting, only prolongs the agony and puts up a barrier between me and my God.

Feel your emotions

"The key is to not resist or rebel against emotions or to try to get around them by devising all sorts of tricks; but to accept them directly, as they are."

-- Takahisa Kora

Emotions are energy in motion. They bring us information if we are willing to experience them. Unfortunately, many of us are afraid of the energy of emotions and so we automatically resist them. And when we refuse to experience our emotions, we block them up. They become trapped and that entrapment drains our energy and brings continuing discomfort.

Don't let emotions push you into action or reaction. Just STOP and PAY ATTENTION. Allow them to be and to speak to you. Once they are acknowledged, their energy is released.

"Instead of resisting any emotion, the best way to dispel it is to enter it fully, embrace it and see through your resistance."

-- Deepak Chopra

"We have to become more conscious of our feeling-world. By learning to identify the ‘emotional baggage’ and manage our feeling-world reactions, we can view life based on current information instead of being held captive by our past."

-- Doc Childre

"Our feelings are our most genuine paths to knowledge."

-- Audre Lorde

In recovery, I found that a lot of feelings in today were often compounded interest from things that happened a long time ago in my childhood. Often they were the result of false evidence appear real, often based on a false sense of pride and responsibility and not mine to take on, and the feelings were more acute as a result of many years of stuffing.

Buried resentments, abandonment issues, rejection and hurt feelings can lead to a lot of pain and insecurity.

We are only as sick as our secrets. We need to brings to the Light in order to heal.

[MajestyJo]

When we believe in something and we do it out of love, and we bring our whole selves to it.

When we support a cause or event for the honor and the glory, we bring an empty shell because our motive and intent behind the action isn't good.

Today I share because I care. I don't share because I am people pleasing and looking for credit, I am hoping that we can build unity and a family together and work as one, no matter what Twelve Step fellowship we belong to. They all originated with Bill and Dr. Bob. The news was spread to their wives and to others, and to many people around the world.

I think they would be very overwhelmed by the growth that has happened as a result of some divinely inspired words written sixty years ago, which has allowed so many people to grow mentally, emotional, spiritual and physically, into new people and given the chance for a new way of life.

Their spirit lives on, and as they said, AA will die from within not from without. The without is growing, but I am seeing sad things in recovery today. I see a lot of people not bringing themselves to the original cause of AA, to carrying the message, but to get what they need out of it and not willing to think of those who come behind them.

Someone took time for me, I hope I never get to a stage in my recovery where I think that my debt has been paid in full. Personally, I know that I will never live that long. The gifts alone which I have received, let alone the chance at a new way of life is beyond price.

Originally posted on another site in 2004.

[MajestyJo]

What is yours will come to you. - Runes

Just finished doing a meditation. I pulled the Movement Rune reversed which means when the time is right, you will know. Sometimes the action you need to do is do nothing. You can't make something happen if the timing isn't right.

How many times, I have searched for something outside of myself. Thanks to recovery, I can go within to find the answers. Even more important was the lesson that what I heard was not to be discounted. To doubt myself, meant to doubt my God.

So many times we think we should be doing, when in fact, all we have to do is just be. It is an old tape that is running, "The devil makes work for idle hands. If you aren't doing you are lazy."

[MajestyJo]

How many times have we done this? How often do we not want to hear what is being said, and turned a blind eye or a deaf ear to what is being said? How often have we put our hands up instead of out?

I was told to listen to the message, and not look at where it came from or who said it, but to listen and learn about the part that is meant for me.

Many times we pull on the blanket of denial and refuse to listen, refuse to take in what is being said, and reject it out of hand, before we even process it.

You might not agree with all of it, but maybe the premise is something you need to hear and take to heart. It may go against what you believe in, but we are asked to be honest, willing, and open minded.

[MajestyJo]

NEVER UNDER ESTIMATE HIS POWER! KNOW IT IS ALWAYS THERE!

[MajestyJo]

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE



I can start the day without caffeine,

I can get going without pep pills,


I can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains,


I can resist complaining and boring people with my troubles,


I can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it,


I can understand when my loved ones are too busy to give me any time,


I can overlook it when the ones I love take it out on me when, through no fault of mine, something goes wrong,


I can take criticism and blame without resentment,


I can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him,


I can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend,


I can face the world full of lies and deceit,


I can conquer tension without medical help,


I can relax without liquor,


I can sleep without the aid of drugs.


Who else gives unconditional love?

[MajestyJo]

...“bad faith” is a phrase which justifies the lack of belief in free choice.

Toxic Antithesis for Clair Drucker


Read this on a post this morning and I thought it could use some perusal.

Just how bad is my faith? Is it justifiable or just fine thank you.

I believe in freedom of choice. Do I exercise that belief and get the most out of the power that is available to me? Or, do I just know, and do nothing about it?

Always thought of faith as a positive thing. I know a little goes a long way. I whole lot strengthens me. I have faith in the AA program. I have faith in the 12 Steps. I believe they are a tool that fits any nut that walks through the doors of recovery. I thought that was very derogatory when I first heard it but found it to be very true. I was one of the biggest, it fit me so why wouldn't it fit someone else.

My hope turned into faith. My faith turned into a connection to my Higher Power. Have I maintained that connection or have I turned it into an Ego?

Faith without works is dead. Work without faith, gets me nowhere.

How does your faith measure up?