Recently, a class I was taking asked us to poll our friends with this question:
"What is the most unexpected, miraculous thing you have ever experienced?"
The point of the exercise was to help us to see that miracles really do happen everyday. And they are much more frequent than we imagine. True, indeed.
Here are some of the answers I received:
* Looking from a boat at snow capped mountain rising up out of the ocean
* Conceiving and having twins at age 44
* Watching my hole-in-one go into the cup
* Meeting my wife - I thought this would never happen to me
* The adoption process -- celebrating my daughter's culture made motherhood extra special
* Falling in love, love at first sight
* Being able to look down on a rainbow
* The first five years of my brother's life
* The love I have for my children
* Having a boy after having 4 girls
Very diverse, yes. And very attainable too, I would say. My mentor used to say, "Perhaps you should lower your standards on miracles." In other words, we tend to think certain things we want or need are unattainable when, in reality, they happen everyday. It's only in our own thought process that we decide they are unattainable. If I saw more things as miracles, maybe more things would seem possible to me.
My answer, by the way, was: bonding with my adopted son instantly and growing to not only deeply love him, but motherhood as well - far more than I had imagined. That's my answer to the "most" but there are many unexpected and miraculous things around me everyday, if I will only look at them. The important thing to remember is to look for them! What a miracle that I can have a Spanish class over Skype with my Guatemalan teacher and, with web cam, I can see him too. Miracle! My son, with two languages, was slow to start speaking. 4 months before his third birthday he tests like a 3 year old. Miracle! Last Thursday, I celebrated 24 years without a drink or a drug. Miracle! A butterfly flew over to me yesterday and flapped its elegant, large, black wings in front of my face for a moment. Miracle!
And how delicious it feels to think this way all day! It's so much better than trying to plan out what is going to happen and how I can affect that. When I am looking for miracles...miracles happen. The trick is to look for the miracles that are already happening around you. That's what opens the door for the new miracles to come. Like attracts like, remember.
So lower your standards and let the miracles begin!
Showing posts with label attraction. Show all posts
Showing posts with label attraction. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Don't Look Back
I've noticed this tendency in my clients, and myself, to look at past events and say, "Oh, if that would only have gone this way," or "if this had not happened," or "if I'd only known..." But to say this is to miss the point -- we aren't supposed to know! The art of living --the fun of it all -- is in the learning as we go along. In fact, when we spend time lamenting the past, we have stopped moving forward. Consider this quote by Alexander Graham Bell, "When one door closes another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us." So every time we look back, we stop the flow of abundance to us. Our work is to look for the positive aspects of all that happens to us. Why? Well first, because when your focus is on what went wrong you are attracting more of that. It's like taking one step forward and two steps back. And secondly, because you never know exactly how the Universe is delivering your good to you. If you bless everything that happens, you are bound to hit upon the one thing that is, in fact, the next step to what you have been praying for!
There is an old fable to illustrate this point:
There was an old Chinese farmer who had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to console him over his terrible loss. The farmer said, “Good thing, bad thing, I don’t know”
A month later, the horse came home--this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer's good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, “Good thing, bad thing, I don’t know.”
The farmer's son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, “Good thing, bad thing, I don’t know.”
A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer's son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the farmer. “Good thing, bad thing, I don’t know,” said the farmer.
So you see, you never know which seemingly regrettable event is really bringing you a great boon. Bless them all and place your attention firmly back to your future and what you want to transpire. As Micheal Beckwith put it, "Energy flows where attention goes."
Here's some things to say when you are tempted to lament past events:
1) Something good will come out of that.
2) Hmm. That was interesting.
3) I refuse to give my attention to that; I'm going to look ahead.
4) I bless that situation and everyone in it.
Say it and let it go. This is such a vital habit to develop if you want a truly prosperous life. Do you?
I've noticed this tendency in my clients, and myself, to look at past events and say, "Oh, if that would only have gone this way," or "if this had not happened," or "if I'd only known..." But to say this is to miss the point -- we aren't supposed to know! The art of living --the fun of it all -- is in the learning as we go along. In fact, when we spend time lamenting the past, we have stopped moving forward. Consider this quote by Alexander Graham Bell, "When one door closes another opens. But we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we fail to see the one that has opened for us." So every time we look back, we stop the flow of abundance to us. Our work is to look for the positive aspects of all that happens to us. Why? Well first, because when your focus is on what went wrong you are attracting more of that. It's like taking one step forward and two steps back. And secondly, because you never know exactly how the Universe is delivering your good to you. If you bless everything that happens, you are bound to hit upon the one thing that is, in fact, the next step to what you have been praying for!
There is an old fable to illustrate this point:
There was an old Chinese farmer who had only one horse, and one day the horse ran away. The neighbors came to console him over his terrible loss. The farmer said, “Good thing, bad thing, I don’t know”
A month later, the horse came home--this time bringing with her two beautiful wild horses. The neighbors became excited at the farmer's good fortune. Such lovely strong horses! The farmer said, “Good thing, bad thing, I don’t know.”
The farmer's son was thrown from one of the wild horses and broke his leg. All the neighbors were very distressed. Such bad luck! The farmer said, “Good thing, bad thing, I don’t know.”
A war came, and every able-bodied man was conscripted and sent into battle. Only the farmer's son, because he had a broken leg, remained. The neighbors congratulated the farmer. “Good thing, bad thing, I don’t know,” said the farmer.
So you see, you never know which seemingly regrettable event is really bringing you a great boon. Bless them all and place your attention firmly back to your future and what you want to transpire. As Micheal Beckwith put it, "Energy flows where attention goes."
Here's some things to say when you are tempted to lament past events:
1) Something good will come out of that.
2) Hmm. That was interesting.
3) I refuse to give my attention to that; I'm going to look ahead.
4) I bless that situation and everyone in it.
Say it and let it go. This is such a vital habit to develop if you want a truly prosperous life. Do you?
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