After years of getting what you were told is important (the house, car, good job), you realize that you are not happy. You get more things, but you still aren’t happy. You drink, you eat, you get angry, you take a class, but you still aren’t happy.

There is a nagging discontent.

The discontent is calling you to do more with your life. It will not be squelched with alcohol, TV, games, parties, food, promotions, or small talk. You can no longer complain about the state of things in the world without the nagging discontent.

It’s time to wake up and pay attention to your life. Look around and take stock of where you are: your health, your finances, your skills, your talents, your inherent gifts. Instead of asking what you can do to feel better or what toy you can buy to lift your spirits, ask yourself what gifts you have to give to the world.

If you’re not sure what your gifts are, try this scenario. Imagine you are diagnosed with a terminal disease and you have 3 weeks to live. Your son or daughter is 10 years old. You have a will and you’ve set up guardianship. You have a house and you’ve saved some money. Your friends and relatives will be a cocoon for them. What do you want to make sure to teach them before you leave the earth?

Do you want to teach them how to do 10 riffs on a guitar that you contrived when you were on a retreat one weekend in your 20’s? Do you want them to know about the importance of an education? Do you want to show them how to treat their husband or wife? The answer to this question is a clue to a gift. Something as unique to you as your DNA. It is latent within you and waiting to be shared with the rest of the world.

Another method is to pay attention to your complaints. What do you find most annoying in the world? Is it voter apathy? Is it information privacy? Is it the healthcare system? Your avid complaints signal a passion for change in that arena.

At this point, many people ask where they will find the time. Some people say that they will pursue their passion once they are retired. Others say that they don’t have the luxury of pursuing passion, they have to make a living.

What good is a living without a life? If you spend the most productive years on your life pursuing someone else’s dream, when will you have the energy to work on your own? If you don’t have the time to work on your passions, what are you spending it on?

Most important, if not you, WHO?

In Spirit,
Nneka

I recently stumbled upon Lyman’s hack of the 12 steps and it reminded me of my own encounter with a 12-Step Program.

Years ago, in an attempt to lose weight, I stepped through the doors of Overeaters Anonymous. I stopped cold with the first step:

We admitted we were powerless over food — that our lives had become unmanageable.

There it was staring me in the face - POWERLESS. Throughout my life, my theology was built on the notion that I created my life with my thoughts, an idea that is now popular thanks to the Secret.

Indeed, I was taught the antithesis of powerlessness. I was taught conscious creation. I wasn’t about to give up my power over food or admit that my life was unmanageble. To do so, in my mind, would have been to say that I didn’t create my life. Blasphemy!

I went to meetings, followed a food plan, and called my sponsor religiously for 3 months. While I lost weight, it didn’t stick.

My 12 step experience caused me to begin to question the belief that said that I created my life with my thoughts. While very empowering because it made me 100% responsible for my life, this belief by itself was unforgiving.

In the realm of conscious creation, there’s a backlash against ideas like surrender, powerlessness, and letting go. It’s almost as if, in our discovery that we can create our life with our thoughts, we got an excuse to ignore the greater Presence that underscores life. In other words, we have found a way to control our destinies. We cling to it and won’t leave an opening for the flow of life.

Conscious creation is not about control and ridgidity though. No siree, it is about being aware of what we are creating so that we don’t look around at our lives and think that something made it the way that it is. Conscious creation says that we can choose what we want our lives to look like.

At some point, we hit a barrier with the sole belief of conscious creation. We will need to start employing it with a few other beliefs that may seem contradictory to it, like powerlessness and surrender. We must surrender our intentions and affirmations, loosen our grips on exactly the way we want the world to look and allow Spirit to unfold and manifest in our lives.

We must cultivate the belief that Spirit/God/Consciousness exists, and is truly all good.

Yes, I went there - God, the other bad word. Not the man in the sky God, but the Energy that underlies all of life. God is the Presence, Power, and Substance in the Universe that is waiting to be directed and is directing all at once. When we believe that that Energy is all good, all light, we are not afraid to relinquish the reigns on our lives and allow that Good to come into manifestation through us.

You possess tremendous power. You can shape your life through the activity of your mind - your thoughts. As you continue to explore the belief of conscious creation, you will notice the effort that you must put forth to create your world. At this point, ask yourself what would life be like if I opened to the experience of God in my life?

It doesn’t mean giving up your ability to create your world. It means enhancing it.

In Spirit,
Nneka