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Saturday, March 12, 2005
Below is this week's installment of A Course in Creation. If you miss a message in the series, just go to A Course in Creation. They will all be posted there.
Today, we continue in our Course in Creation, helping you to create a joyful and fulfilling life for the time you are here. And today, our focus is on joy. Simple joy, pure joy.
This week, your assignment is very simple. You are to learn to feel joy. You are to teach yourself that you are capable of filling yourself with joy no matter what is happening in your life. You are to learn that joy is something you create inside, not something which is imposed from outside by circumstances and other people. This week, learn that you are truly the creator of your life, and learn it by creating joy in every moment.
And at the end of the week, after you have practiced and experienced this, realize the freedom you have just given yourself. Now, there is no reason to chase after another person, thinking that you must have them with you in order to be happy. You can be happy within yourself, full of peace and joy, whether they are with you or not. And you will be free from chasing after money, thinking that it is the path to joy. It is not. All of the money in the world cannot bring you what you can give yourself simply by opening yourself to the flow of joy. And you can be free of the concern about age, worried that you can are no longer attractive, worried that it is too late to achieve whatever you wished to achieve. For you will understand that the only thing worth achieving is ultimately the joy, peace and happiness that you give yourself, and this is available to you at any age, at any time. It is within you always, and you need only learn to open yourself to it.
Every morning, spend a few moments opening yourself to joy. Come to know joy as connection. This is why falling in love has such a joyful component; because you finally feel connected. You can achieve that same connection by yourself, by connecting with your own soul self. You do not need another person to help be that conduit to pure love, joy and peace.
Sit quietly and breathe in deeply several times. If you have been practicing your meditations regularly, you will be able to achieve this state of quiet very quickly. If not, this is a good week to begin daily meditation.
Breathe in deeply and then give yourself a little energy bath. Just picture the particles of gold and silver which are gathering in the sky above you. High up in the heavens, they are gathering, like a gently swirling cyclone of energy. And now, let this cone of energy dip down and cover you. Bring it down slowly, slowly, let it cover your head, then your torso, then the rest of your body. Let it swirl around, gently and lovingly, taking with it all of your worries, your fears, your doubts, all negative feelings, all focus on the past or the future. All of this is being picked up from your mind and body within the swirling cyclone of loving energy.
And then, let it lift off and return to the sky. And as it goes, let it take with it all of the negative. You are now clean and clear and supremely focused into now, this moment, and this moment only.
And now, be aware of your own soul self which is above you. You may think of it as a glowing ball of energy, up above your head. And feel the channel of golden energy which flows down from your soul self, from this ball of loving energy down into the crown of your head. First, just see and feel the channel of energy. Be aware of it. Feel how you are connected to something high, pure and good. Feel how you are connected to the ultimate source of creation, your very own soul, which survives after this physical life is over and was here before it began. Feel this connection.
And now, let the love and energy from your soul self pour down into you. Feel it entering in the crown of your head and pouring down through your entire body. Feel it flowing down, down, down. Know this flowing energy as peace. Then know it as love. And then, finally, know it as joy.
Feel the peace, love and joy, flowing down steadily from your own soul self into you. Let it flow and flow until you cannot help but smile, so strong is the joy which is flooding you. Know that it is endless, this flow. Know that it is there for you at any time. Let it flow and flow, just maintaining this flow for as long as you care to.
And as some point, when you are full up with peace, joy and love, just thank your soul self and ask that this flow of energy be continued all the time, even when you are not consciously aware of it. Give yourself permission to open wide to it. The flow is always there. You are the only one who blocks it. Be aware of this and give yourself permission to stay wide open to this flow.
And then, breathe in deeply, come back to your normal consciousness, with just a hint in the background that this flow of energy is there, ever and always, pouring down into you, and all you have to do is remain open to it.
Do this meditation every day this week without fail. It can be very brief. Add it to your other normal meditations and spiritual practices. Even five minutes will give you a wonderful experience. And if you are pressed for time, then compress your entire morning spiritual practice into this five minute experience. But do it. For it is a wonderful thing to learn, that you are truly capable of opening yourself to this joy.
And now, as you go out into the world and experience outer circumstances, keep yourself grounded in yourself. As something happens, as circumstances are difficult, just return to this joy inside. You may be talking to someone, for example, and the usual tension you feel with this person begins to build inside. And in the back of your mind, now you can bring in joy to counteract the tension. Do a mini-version of what you have practiced in the morning.
First, let a cone of energy quickly dip down and clear you of the negative feeling and thoughts which are building within you. Then open up your channel to your own soul self and let the loving, peaceful and joyful energy flow down into you, filling you up, filling your heart and letting it relax, filling your center and letting you breathe, filling your mind with peace, so that you are not in the middle of those repeating patterns of fear, doubt, anger and worry.
Practice this little mini joy session throughout your day. Let circumstances that used to trigger an anxiety episode now trigger a joy episode. Let your response to all negative circumstances be to open yourself to peace, love and joy.
You can learn to do this. You can teach yourself this. And if it takes some time, both to learn the meditation in the morning and to practice it during the day, that is all right. You have time. This is your life and you have all the time in the world, every day from now until the end of your life, to get to it right.
What you will find, if you will but practice this and then apply it over and over, is that it will begin to color your entire day. You will find that you respond differently to people when you have opened yourself up to love and joy. You will make different decisions. You will listen differently. And the tension level in your life will reduce dramatically.
Also, be more aware of nature whenever you get the chance. Let just a little walk across the parking lot be a meditative and joyful experience. Get out of your car and before you begin walking, look up into the sky. Feel the vastness. Take a moment to observe any clouds which are floating above you, any birds flying by. Know that this sky is full of loving energy, the very energy you used as a bath during your morning exercise. And as you walk across the parking lot, you can either just appreciate the beauty of the sky, or you can give yourself a wonderful energy bath out in the open. As you walk, just feel that cone of energy coming down and clearing you, helping you to enter your coming activities with peace and joy in your heart and mind.
Also, be aware of sounds; in particular, be aware of birds. Hear their joyful song. Pay attention. It is often there and ignored. Notice it. Hear it and let it be a trigger for you to open to joy and freedom. For freedom is achieved only when you come down into now, this moment, setting aside the regrets and anger over the past and the worries and anxiety over tomorrow. Joy is right now, right here. It is within you. It is flowing into you. Let the breeze and the birds remind you, when you are outside or even when you have the opportunity to gaze out the window. Take every possible opportunity to clear yourself and fill yourself with joy.
And toward the end of the week, when you are beginning to feel very powerful and joyful, you may wish to expand your exercises to include others. They will not consciously know it, but they will feel it on another level. This is especially good if you are in a very tense environment, either at work or at home.
Picture the cone of energy and let it be large enough to encompass the entire building in which you are sitting. Let it pull all of the negative energies away, cleaning and purifying the entire building and all of the people who are within it.
And then, picture the soul selves of all of the people who are in the building with you, as bright shining balls above the building. Picture the channels of energy flowing down and blessing and filling the building with joy and love and a deep peace. Just spend a few minutes with this picture and then release it.
Since the other people are not consciously participating, you may not see a dramatic change. But you will sense a slight shifting of the tension and you may observe that the crises settle down a bit, that people are able to interact a bit more calmly. You may even experience that certain major issues seem to resolve themselves. And if this is so, just begin to consciously spend a part of each day in this exercise, calming everyone and helping them to open to the wonder and glory of their own soul selves. You are not imposing anything upon them, just helping them to connect with themselves a bit more easily, the way any healer does.
Yes, you are a healer. And every time you do this exercise, for yourself or anyone else, you are helping everyone heal. For this is what healing is, opening yourself to the joyous energy which is you and letting it flood down and fill you. Joy, love and peace. They are what you are made of at the higher level. Let it be what you are made of here, in this physical level as well. ***
My life right now is a bit on the hectic side. I fly out of town every Sunday and fly back in on Thursday or Friday night. The computer system implementation I’m working on is getting more tense as the schedule begins to slip. So believe me, Quado has me in mind as well as you with today’s message.
So let me tell you about my joyous morning today. (Click here to meet this cast of characters.)
Katie and I went out to get the paper. It’s a favorite treat for us in the morning and today, as usual, I walked slowly, breathed in the fresh air and gazed at a tree or two. I fed Katie and Oscar and then went into the guest room to take care of Sara and her kittens. Ed was in there with them. They were running across the room and taking a swipe at a little object he had tied to the end of a string. Rita, Miriam, Melanie, Bernard and Bob are all developing interesting personalities.
Then I lay down on the couch for the Quado Renewal Meditation, and Oscar jumped up and took a little nap on my legs. (I know they say not to lie down when you meditate, but it’s my world!) Katie lay down on the rug nearby and we all had a wonderful meditation.
Then I got this message from Quado, got dressed and went out to see my granddaughter’s ballet lesson. Little 3-year-old girls twirling around in tutus was a treat. There is a picture of this event out on the Photo Gallery as well.
So as you can see, I am deeply blessed. And all I need to do is quiet down the whining complaint in my mind ("Why do I have to go out of town again tomorrow? Poor me!") and fill myself with joy and gratitude for this moment, for my connection with my family, with my own soul self and with all of you.
And I think I’d better try that energy cleanse on the whole building this week!
***
A few weeks ago, I recommended the book Next Time I Dance. One of the readers of the Course in Creation pointed out that the correct title is This Time I Dance. That was a pretty funny mistake, don’t you think? Yes, let’s dance this time! This Time I Dance, by Tama J. Kieves. A terrific book, very inspiring.
This last week I finished reading Deepak Chopra’s new book, Peace is the Way. (All the airplane travel does help provide reading time.) This was not a quick or easy read, but I believe it is a very important one, about how to live your life in such a way that it promotes peace for all of us. I recommend it highly.
And of course, you must meditate every day! Do your regular meditation for 20 minutes or so each morning and then follow it with a touch of joy, as Quado described above. Personally, I do a Quado Meditation every morning and then connect with my soul self for joy during my morning shower.
The Quado meditations all have energy cleanses. The Self-Love Meditation begins with the cleanse Quado describes above, pulling down a cone of swirling energy. The Abundance Meditation begins with a chakra clearing, moving up through your body to clear and balance your energy centers and then ending with a connection to your soul self at the crown of your head. The Renewal Meditation focuses on circulating your blood through your body, replacing the fear and doubt with love as the blood flows through your heart. Any of these three meditations would work well before your five minutes of joy. Click here to listen to samples and read the full transcripts.
Have a week full to the brim with joy. I do appreciate your company on this journey.
Love & peace, Carrie
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