MUSE-INGS: Do not water the seeds of doubt!

Doubt seems to have a lot of power in one’s life.  It can choke out the Light that is unfolding in you, just as a weed chokes out the life in a garden.  When we attach our thoughts to doubt we invite that energy to take us over.  Have you ever followed a path of doubt so far into the darkness that you couldn’t see any way back to the Light?  It’s easy to do because doubt in ourselves is so easily reinforced by others around us.  Sometimes it is even planted by those who are supposed to be supporting us.  Teachers set low expectations for a student who starts to believe that they will never be an academic success.  Parents compare their child unfavorably to another child and create doubt about worthiness.  Teenagers gossip about others and create insecurities in each other.  Society says we must be beautiful, rich, thin in order to be successful, and we must drive a certain car, drink a certain drink, wear certain clothes to be attractive to the opposite sex.  Who hasn’t doubted that they measure up to these rulers of society?

Doubt can be seductive in its attractiveness.  What masquerades as humility, which we are taught is an admirable quality, can actually be doubt in our merit, our own self-worth.  We are taught not to brag about our achievements or our good qualities but isn’t that a false modesty?  Why is doubt a better choice than self-acceptance and self-confidence?

In a relationship, doubt can often create a chasm between people who have not developed healthy communication skills.  One partner starts to doubt and holds back a part of self from the other.  The seed of doubt grows with every thought, often way out of proportion to the original circumstance, but once it starts to grow it takes on a life of its own.  Relationships can be ended because someone watered and fertilized a seed of doubt until it took over the whole relationship.

What can we do when we start to feel doubt?  The first thing to do is to examine the source of the doubt.  Did someone else create it or did we attach our thoughts to doubt as it arose in us?  Sometimes determining the source is all that is needed to dismiss a feeling before it attaches and grows.  If you are feeling doubt, ask yourself, ‘What is this?  Is this real?’  We often react to something that is difficult to believe by doubting that it is true, without ever taking the time to ascertain the facts.

And if you are feeling doubt about yourself, your self worth, your abilities, then look at what is behind the doubt.  Did it start in your childhood because of a belief you held at that time?  Are you believing what someone else has said about you without checking inside yourself for your truth?  Are you avoiding accepting your own inner greatness because you are afraid to claim it?  Sometimes the doubt is not about worthiness but about the magnitude of your own worth in the world.

When you attach yourself to thoughts of doubt you are moving yourself away from your own Inner Light and the source of Universal Light.  Think about the story in the movie ‘Doubt’ where people acted on what they thought they saw, or how they interpreted a situation without really ever determining the facts.  This path led to anguish in the doubters and choices all around that caused pain.

It is time now for us to commit to dispelling doubt because it doesn’t serve the highest good of all.  If you doubt that something is true, then instead of feeding the doubt, determine the truth.  If you feel that you are unworthy, if you doubt yourself and your abilities, then find a way to examine the source of that feeling and accept yourself as the Being of Light that you are.  Choose what you will believe and choose to believe in yourself.  Doubt arises only as a flag to get your attention. Resolve today to use it as such.

I believe in your Inner Splendor!  If you still have problems with doubting yourself, then just remember that!

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THIS WEEK’S MYSTIC MESSAGE from The Divine Feminine: Move beyond doubt!

Dear Ones,

Where there is doubt, let there be Light, for the Light chases away doubt. Doubt comes from dark thoughts, from believing that one is separate from the Light. Doubt begins because a seed has been planted like a weed in a garden of Light. If the seed of doubt is watered and fertilized it takes over the garden, just as a weed does.

You must make sure that you are not watering and fertilizing the seeds of doubt that blow into your personal garden of Light. Sometimes these seeds come from society and societal beliefs, sometimes from people in your life. Sometimes they develop from previous life experiences that are not truly representative or relevant to your current situation.  Be aware that doubt is the enemy of enlightenment. Doubt chokes out the Light that is unfolding within you.

There is only one purpose in doubt – it points to the place in your life that is begging for attention. Do you doubt that you can be successful?  Then examine how you are limiting or even sabotaging your own success. Do you doubt that you can have healthy relationships? Then examine how you are not in a healthy relationship within yourself, or how you can be or become the kind of person/partner you wish to attract. Do you doubt that you can find happiness or even that you deserve happiness? Then examine your definition of happiness and ask if you are looking outside yourself for something that must come from within.

Do not doubt, Dear Ones, that you are less than perfect just as you are, for that which you might label as an ‘imperfection’ in yourself at the moment is merely the pointer for your current lesson.

Conscious Living demands that the individual live a self-examined life. To slide through life without honestly examining one’s inner existence, inner workings and the choices one makes leads one away from happiness and fulfillment. Human beings have an awareness of Self that can lead to extraordinary leaps of consciousness when they look for growth through that awareness and understanding. Many, though, choose to live in denial of their own power to effect the course of their lives, preferring instead to give away that power to external sources.

You are not a canoe with no one to paddle and steer, being carried through life by the flow of the river. No, you are the one with the paddles, choosing your life’s direction in every moment. You choose whether to go with the flow or paddle upstream. You choose how to avoid obstacles or go through them. You choose which branch of the river to follow when you reach a fork. Do not hand those paddles over to someone else. Do not doubt that you are in charge of the direction of your life.

You may not be able to control the weather or the obstacles in your path, but your life is not controlled by those. Your Life is how you respond to those things over which you have no control.

Never doubt that you always have choices about how you respond to challenges. If you allow doubt to control you, then you are giving away the paddles of your canoe.

Keep paddling. Open yourself to guidance. Look at challenges as information, as opportunities for growth, for there is great Light awaiting you on the other side of every lesson. Claim your own power and seek the Light. You will always be rewarded for making this choice.

And so it is.

________________________

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MUSE-INGS: Choose your focus – and laugh?

Focus on the beauty?  Not so easy to do when things are looking bleak or when our attention takes us down a rabbit-hole into the space where everything is ugly.

But have you ever noticed how, when you DO focus on something besides ugliness, you can actually feel uplifted?  Have you ever been really down and had a little child come up and give you a hug?  There is true beauty in that hug, even if it’s full of mud or comes with a bouquet of weeds.  Or have you been feeling sorry for yourself, feeling lonely, and had a friend call out of the blue and invite you out?

We really can control our thoughts when we become aware of our power over them.  We all have knee-jerk reactions to situations or problems or even joy.  Becoming Aware [with a capital ‘A’] means learning to assess those knee-jerk reactions and making a conscious decision about how to act next.  A thought does not have to hold us in its grip without letting go if we choose not to allow it.

Sometimes thoughts do come unbidden into our consciousness but the important thing to learn is to process the thought and ask:

What is this?
Is this true for me now?
Is it in my highest good to hold onto this thought at this time?

Unbidden thoughts often stem from our insecurities and they masquerade as the reality of the moment but we must ask ourselves if they are actually true in that moment.  We can worry all we want about the next tornado or earthquake or hurricane but if the sun is shining now isn’t that what is real?  Isn’t that where we can find the beauty?  We can always worry about something that might happen but if it is not true in this moment then there is something else to look at, to think about, something else on which to focus our attention.

Look around you today and see if you are focusing on the thoughts that are uplifting or if you are attaching to those thoughts that bring you down, that distract you from the beauty of the day.  Even if you are wrestling with a problem today, can you find something of beauty to think of for a moment?  Scientists are now saying that smiling can make us feel happy – it’s not just the other way around!  Try looking in the mirror when you are focusing on problems and force yourself to smile.  I guarantee that you will either laugh at the way you look when you are worrying and/or laugh at the way you look when you force a smile.  That single laugh will shift your body’s energy and allow the Light to come through in that moment.

That is an important shift, for allowing the Light to shine also brings with it resources that better equip you to find a solution to your problem.  You are more resourceful with the Light in you than when you shroud yourself in darkness.

So go ahead and let your thoughts drift across the sky of your mind while you choose which ones on which to focus your attention.  And if you need help, remember to look in the mirror and laugh a beautiful laugh!

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MUSE-INGS: Choose to Think Thoughts Filled with Light

Where is the source of your latest thought?

Sometimes I find I am scattered and my thoughts come from everywhere.  Often I follow one then get sidetracked by the next stimulus and go off on a tangent.  The trouble with that is I can quickly forget where I was going in the first place!

It seems that hitting the ‘pause button of my mind’ is the skill that I need to exercise the most. I stop, breathe, then breathe again, and clarity returns.

I am aware that many thoughts seem to pop into my head from somewhere outside.  Sometimes it’s even my mother, a wonderful woman who has been on The Other Side for over 10 years!  But that voice can help me see what I am looking at through new eyes. Sometimes it is an old tape that is playing in my head and I have to catch myself as an observer to notice that that tape no longer has relevance in my life.  It seems to be so easy to cling to the old ways of thinking because they are automatic, a knee-jerk response to a stimulus.

But once you have decided to live a Conscious Life you must catch yourself in EVERY knee-jerk response. The question to ask is, ‘What is the source of this thought?’  If the answer is that you have considered many options and at this time you have chosen consciously to believe something, then stay with that thought and follow it. If, however, you answer that the thought came from your childhood or your friend at work or from a discussion with a neighbor then reassess its value in your current life.  Why would you spend time and brainpower following a thought that comes from a past prejudice that was instilled in you by someone who hadn’t had the opportunity to examine and discard that prejudice?  Why would you adopt a contracting thought, one that makes you feel smaller rather than expanded, just because someone at work planted that thought or reaction in your mind?

Living a Conscious Life asks you to bring forward your thoughts into the Light and to examine them. There is a quality to thoughts called their ‘Light Content.’  Thoughts that have a high Light Content feel expansive, take you outside of your small ‘s’ self and into the realm of the capital ‘S’ Self.  When you spend time with high Light Content thoughts you will feel yourself touching the world of creativity, of acceptance, of connection.

On the other hand, thoughts of little Light Content feel darker, heavier, more contracting and very personal, without room for others to fit into the thoughts.  Sometimes these thoughts are old thought forms that no longer serve in the 21st Century but are still being held by those who choose not to grow.  These will not serve you in your path of personal and spiritual growth.  Learn to recognize them when they cross your path and choose to move forward, discarding their heavy energy.

Choose to think thoughts that are filled with Light.  Choose to hold onto beliefs that serve your growth into expanded Light.  You are always at the point of choice.  Choose growth.  And enjoy the Light!