I Choose… The Pause (Part
Three)
Unconditional Acceptance
Hi Everyone!
Midway through
this cleanse, I must admit that I find the lack of ANY different results a bit
frustrating. I feel exactly the same as I did before I started it, with the
exception of a severely pinched nerve in my neck that is a new thing (and it
has nothing to do with the cleanse).
And what
this feeling of frustration is telling me is that, although I told myself when
I began that I was doing it without an agenda, clearly I did (do) have an
agenda.
I want to
feel better.
It’s a simple
fact that as of right now, two weeks in, I don’t feel any better or any worse.
And I am resisting that “simple fact” because of how difficult this is. I mean,
really, you would think that if I’m going to put this amount of work into something
like this, the least that God could do for me is show me some dang positive
results, right?! Sheesh! (LOL – I’m being facetious, although there is a grain
of truth here, too, and this has me recognizing that I’ve got strings attached,
which I promised myself I wouldn’t do.)
I find
myself glad that I decided to make it a 30-day cleanse rather than a seven- or
ten-day cleanse, because NOW I have the opportunity to persevere. To NOT give
up. To be AWARE of things [like the hidden agenda that I’m just now discovering]
cropping up that I would not have otherwise recognized. If I had made it a
shorter process, it would have already ended, and my attitude at the end would
have been, “What a waste of time. All that work and nothing to show for it.”
and I would have moved right back into old, unhealthy, unconscious habits.
So I will
continue on, and as I do so I will deliberately cultivate a choice for
unconditional acceptance. Acceptance of all of it, exactly as it is. Non-resistance,
non-attachment, and complete and unconditional acceptance of what-is, is my
choice for the week. In the words of Bill Harris, this week I choose to “let
whatever happens be okay.”
Neck/shoulder/arm
pain? It is what it is, and if I struggle against it I only add emotional
suffering to the physical suffering. ZERO weight loss? If I struggle against
this fact, I will create my own emotional suffering. Still feeling generally
unwell? Again, if I struggle against the circumstance, my experience will be
one of suffering. This idea applies to every single aspect of my life situation.
Relationship issues. Work issues. Vehicle issues. Financial issues. Pet issues.
All of it.
If I can
walk through it all with a feeling of complete acceptance – as if I chose every
bit of it on purpose (and I believe that at the spiritual level, I did) – then I
get to choose how I handle every single step along the way.
Whereas if I
walk through it resisting every step
along the way, choosing to feel like a victim
of it all, I will have a very different experience, won’t I? As long as I
struggle against it, I am powerless
in my experience of it.
When I
choose to accept all of it exactly as it is FIRST [beginning, if need be, with accepting the feeling of non-acceptance,
which is our “normal” human reaction when something happens that we don’t like],
only from there, only if I stand centered in complete acceptance, can I
deliberately choose the experience that I WANT to have.
Acceptance…
deliberate, unconditional acceptance is, I believe, the quickest and most empowering way to bring ourselves to that
feeling of inner peace that is inherent in every single one of us. The peace that
is Divine in its nature. The peace that does not depend on worldly things to be
a certain way before we can feel It.
Remember, circumstances
are completely neutral. They have nothing invested in what we think of them or
how we feel about them. They just ARE. How we experience them is completely up
to us as individuals. Our experience of ANY circumstance is dictated by who we
are choosing to be—and on how we are choosing to see—in the midst of it.
For this
week, at the very least… and preferably for the rest of my life:
I Choose… Unconditional Acceptance
For now, and indefinitely, I am choosing to be a person who knows exactly how to be at peace in the midst of any circumstance, and I find my way to that feeling of peace by deliberately cultivating unconditional acceptance of what-is. I ask the question, “If I knew that I chose this on purpose—for my own benefit, as a spiritual being having a spiritual experience—what would I choose to do and who would I choose to be as I take my steps through it?” And that is how I walk my Path as it winds its way in, through, and around my circumstances. I accept it all.
What about you? What’s going on in YOUR life that would be easier for you if you felt empowered IN it rather than a victim OF it?
We always get to choose. Always. No exceptions. [And
yes, I am aware of what happened in Orlando last night. And no, that does not
qualify as an exception. If anything, that kind of thing is an amazing, powerful
motivator to deliberately choose acceptance and peace. Why? Because blame, anger,
judgment, revenge, fear, punishment, hatred, etc. is NEVER going to produce a solution
to the problem (the “problem” being the mass consciousness—the attitudes, habits
of perception, and beliefs—of our society, itself) that allows things like that
to happen in the first place. Only a choice for peace and love has that
capability.]
Love,
Sandi