Prayer & Meditation the Easy Way

In its simplest form Prayer is speaking with God/Spirit/Universe and Meditation is listening to God/Spirit/Universe. The Universe works on the principle that you ASK and it is GIVEN. So prayer is a time for asking, whether for yourself or for others. It is also a time for praise & thanksgiving, which is also called appreciation & gratitude. Here you are giving thanks and/or marveling at the wonder of your fabulous life. It is energy directed out of you. You can speak your prayers aloud or silently in your mind. It doesn't matter to the God/Spirit/Universe.

Meditation is the listening part. You see, G/S/U speaks to us through intuition. We need to have good inner listening, which gets clearer when you meditate. Now, listening is a relatively passive activity and is not embraced nor encouraged by your ego/conscious mind. So the goal is to quiet your mind and get it to go away. You want to empty your mind of thoughts. This is energy directed in you. When your mind is empty, that is when God/Spirit/Universe can speak to you.

So that's the bare bones of the two. Both expand as your practice them. But here are some suggestions for success in each:

Prayer: Keep a prayer journal. This helps you to see what has come to pass that you have prayed for. If you wrote a list of the 5 favorite things in your life right now, you'd realize they were all prayers of yours, not so long ago. Therefore you know prayers are answered. So will be the ones you are praying now.

Meditation: Set yourself up for success by turning off the TV and the phone first. Find a very comfortable spot and set an alarm that beeps to let you know you are finished. Then try this simple method here: Easy Meditation

Forgiveness and Release

I am continually amazed at the power of forgiveness. On all levels it can improve our lives. Because we humans tend to take things personally and get offended at every little thing. Most of what anyone else is doing is about THEM, rarely, if ever, about us. (See Don Miguel Ruiz's book The Four Agreements for the full story on this)

Some time ago, I was picking up my son from my mother's best friend, when she began to tell me the litany of grievances she & her husband held against their neighbor. This neighbor had called the police on them for parking their car in the street in front of his house, had called them the most heinous of names (crazy) and she could not sleep at night for worrying about what he might do next.

Knowing her strong Catholic faith, I said to her: "Well, you know what you have to do, right?"

Befuddled, she replied: "No, what?"

"Pray for him. Grant him forgiveness."

She looked aghast.

"And do it every night for two weeks, I continued. "And when you pray, pray for him to have every good thing that you hope for yourself. Love, good health, wealth, etc..."

Without skipping a beat, (to her credit) she proclaimed, "I'll do it!"

One day shy of the 2 week mark, I stopped by her house to pick up some pictures. She couldn't wait to tell me that, not only had the neighbor approached her to let her know, "he's all over that now," but has also offered to plant a dogwood tree for her where another had died just so that "she could enjoy looking at it."

It goes to show: when you shine your light, others can't help but to be enlightened by it. But forgiveness is not for the other person anyway. It's for YOU. When my friend released her resentments, judgments and bad feelings about her neighbor, the problems disappeared. And this can happen for any grievance you may have - old or new.

Praying for their happiness is one technique to bring about the release needed to unblock yourself. Another is the stage technique. I have recorded it in an 4 minute audio for you to listen to and follow along. It is guaranteed to help you with your stickiest forgiveness issue. (You know, that #&!* person you just don't want to forgive!) Click here to download: Forgiveness Technique

Forgiveness and Release

I am continually amazed at the power of forgiveness. On all levels it can improve our lives. Because we humans tend to take things personally and get offended at every little thing. Most of what anyone else is doing is about THEM, rarely, if ever, about us. (See Don Miguel Ruiz's book The Four Agreements for the full story on this)

Some time ago, I was picking up my son from my mother's best friend, when she began to tell me the litany of grievances she & her husband held against their neighbor. This neighbor had called the police on them for parking their car in the street in front of his house, had called them the most heinous of names (crazy) and she could not sleep at night for worrying about what he might do next.

Knowing her strong Catholic faith, I said to her: "Well, you know what you have to do, right?"

Befuddled, she replied: "No, what?"

"Pray for him. Grant him forgiveness."

She looked aghast.

"And do it every night for two weeks, I continued. "And when you pray, pray for him to have every good thing that you hope for yourself. Love, good health, wealth, etc..."

Without skipping a beat, (to her credit) she proclaimed, "I'll do it!"

One day shy of the 2 week mark, I stopped by her house to pick up some pictures. She couldn't wait to tell me that, not only had the neighbor approached her to let her know, "he's all over that now," but has also offered to plant a dogwood tree for her where another had died just so that "she could enjoy looking at it."

It goes to show: when you shine your light, others can't help but to be enlightened by it. But forgiveness is not for the other person anyway. It's for YOU. When my friend released her resentments, judgments and bad feelings about her neighbor, the problems disappeared. And this can happen for any grievance you may have - old or new.

Praying for their happiness is one technique to bring about the release needed to unblock yourself. Another is the stage technique. I have recorded it in an 4 minute audio for you to listen to and follow along. It is guaranteed to help you with your stickiest forgiveness issue. (You know, that #&!* person you just don't want to forgive!) Click here to download: Forgiveness Technique

Making Peace

What do I mean by this: 'Make peace with what is'? Most people find ways to get all worked up about things, to create drama in their lives and find countless ways to feel offended by other people. It stems from our need to be noticed, to be seen in a certain way by others or to feel love (or attention, at least) And it gets us in trouble.

This behavior causes us pain. By our own hand, of course. Or should I say by our own thoughts. We think our way into these messes and by ourselves we can't get out. We are stuck.

The fastest way out of any stuck place is to make peace with where you are. So we are talking about acceptance here. But acceptance is the result. How do we reach this state of acceptance? Here are 4 points to consider:

FINDING APPRECIATION
When you struggle, or push against, what is in your life, you ensure that it will stay. When we look for things to appreciate in whatever is happening to us, we instantly stop resisting and begin moving toward what we do want. That will be easy or hard to do depending on how attached you are to the particular thing, but it absolutely works.

LOOK FOR THE CONTRAST
An oft over looked principle of truth is this: When you really know what you DON'T want then you really really know what you DO want. So you can be grateful for the things that go wrong because they give you the clarity to know what is right. When you look at "things gone wrong" in this light, every situation has a blessing.

GRATITUDE - A DAILY HABIT
A key to making peace (and to a happy life) is to acquire the habit of listing the things you are grateful for everyday. It not only reminds you of all that is going right in your world, but it is the easiest way to shift your point of vibration to positive.

FORGIVE EVERYONE, ESPECIALLY YOU
We do not get away with unforgiveness. When we forgive, we do it for ourselves, not for the other person. There is not ever a good enough reason to give away our peace and our freedom. Resenting someone or something is like chaining yourself to them - you cannot be free. Forgiveness is the key that lets it go. Forgiveness of yourself is crucial too. You did the best you could and you must make peace with that.

Try this forgiveness exercise to help you along. Fill out this sheet, print it out and review it everyday, stating the affirmations at the bottom. Do this for just two weeks and watch the amazing results.