The Global Conversation

Category: Somebody Asked Me

  • How to reconcile Oneness with eating plants and animals?

    I believe I am one with all life. I do try to preserve life. I do not kill anything I can help killing. I have even taken flies outside (Once there were a bunch trapped inside a window, and easy to catch).  But I have often been perplexed by the fact that I still eat meat. Is eating plant life any different?… Janey

    Dear Janey… To me, that’s the predicament we have with the way we are separated from our food sources in modern-day society. It’s so much easier to eat an animal that has already been slaughtered, prepared, and packaged for our convenience. If I were totally true to myself, I would never eat any meat at all. I haven’t consumed any land animals in over 20 years, but still do eat some seafood. But I can tell you, if I had to catch it myself, I wouldn’t do it. When I see a fisherman catch a fish and put it in his bucket, it’s all I can do to not go over and toss it back into the water!

    As for eating whole plants that we call “vegetables,” that’s not ideal for the spiritually aware person either, as they are also living, breathing individuations of God/Life. I personally feel a little guilty when pulling weeds out of the yard and find myself wanting to give them a “heads up” and apologize!

    If you haven’t read Conversations With God Book 3, you may want to see what it has to say about how Highly Evolved Beings deal with this question.

    CWG says, “Every act is an act of self-definition.” If we want to stop eating plants and animals, we can instead choose to eat only their by-products (seeds, fruits, nuts, grains, eggs and cheese) and probably do our bodies, minds and spirits a world of good!

    If you’re interested in experimenting with a vegetarian diet, I can most highly recommend Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone by Deborah Madison. It’s the cooking “Bible” in our house, and if I could only own one cookbook, this would be it. It takes you by the hand and teaches you everything you ever wanted to know about veggies but were afraid to ask. Bon appetit!

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to:  Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

  • Practice Your Way to Well-Being

    I’m looking for practices that support my well-being and my staying connected to who I am, besides meditation (which I’ve tried and I just can’t seem to get the hang of!).  Any good ones you know of that really work?

    Ken, Ohio

     

    Why yes, Ken, I do!  This is one of my favorite topics to speak to, as I have found in my own experience as well as the experiences of my clients that engaging in a daily practice is the single most important thing you can do for yourself, and happens to be the key to sustaining your connection and well-being.  When you show up for yourself in this way with such consistency, commitment and discipline, you are becoming aligned and present in life in such a way that positively and powerfully impacts every aspect of it.  The reason for this is because engaging consistently in practices such as meditation allows you to stay in a high-vibrating, good-feeling place, and you are able to access more clarity, truth, intuition, wisdom, inspiration, motivation, etc. than when you are feeling disconnected, negative, and vibrating low.  So I always encourage my clients (and myself) to make their daily practices as important and as high of a priority as eating, sleeping and breathing are, and I’m not exaggerating.

    So I’ll get off my soapbox now and give you 3 of my favorites:

    ~ Daily Gratitudes: Each day spend a few quiet moments writing down at least 10 things that you are truly grateful for, and consciously choose to make your first and last thoughts of the day thoughts of gratitude.  I have no doubt in my mind that if each and every one of us did this the world would be a much better place.

    ~ Incantations: Very similar to affirmations, yet waaaaayyyyyy more powerful because we are engaging your energy and physiology with the words to produce the “feeling” of what you are saying.  Let me explain.  You know how sometimes repeating an affirmation or a mantra can sometimes get frustrating because while you are saying it you are very aware that you are not feeling it?  With an incantation, we choose our statement, and repeat it with feeling, much like an actor delivering a line.  We also repeat it while engaging in a “power move” or stance, a movement or position that makes you feel powerful.  The results are quite magical.  For example, if you were to use the incantation, “I am confident and happy”, repeating it several times with emotion while moving your body powerfully (or even just standing in a yoga pose or something), you would find yourself feeling confident within minutes, sometimes seconds.  You see, incantations help us immediately manifest the emotion, which is what we’re looking for anyway.  It’s not the house, the car, the job, the relationship, etc. that we want, it’s how we think it’s going to make us feel.  Imagine being able to feel however we wanted to without the things we think we need in order to feel it first – that would mean we literally do not need anything outside of ourselves in order to feel good (see: illusion of need from “Communion with God”)!  And a lovely added benefit to this is that our very “feeling” or “being” draws those things to us (see: process of creation from “Happier Than God”)!

    ~ Meditation:  Yeah, yeah, I get it – you’re not good at it.  But I’m going to include it anyway because the benefits are endless, and I’d like to offer you a new approach/perspective on it: there is no wrong way to meditate.  Whether it’s sitting in silence with your eyes closed focusing on your breath, doing a guided meditation, or just daydreaming, you are benefiting.  Try a few different things on, without judging them, just notice which method you like best.  And start small – even 3 minutes a day every day can work wonders.

    Try these out, Ken, and see how they feel.  But give it a good two weeks of committing to practice these every day no matter what so that you can really feel the impact.  Because it doesn’t really matter what you do, it’s the fact that you take time to go within consistently that creates the experience of well-being and connection.  Enjoy!

    (Nova Wightman is a CWG Life Coach, as well as the owner and operator of Go Within Life Coaching, www.gowithincoaching.com, specializing in helping individuals blend their spirituality with their humanity in a way that makes life more enjoyable, easy, and fulfilling.  She can be reached at Nova@theglobalconversation.com. )

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to: Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com, where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

  • Home for the Holidays…ho, ho, ho??

    Dear Therese,

    I am about to visit my family for the holidays, and I am very nervous about this trip.  We have a difficult history, that’s mostly okay now, but we haven’t seen each other for a long time.  How do I get through this with no drama?  

    KC in NC

    Dear KC,

    This is a difficult and stressful time of year for a lot of people, so don’t think that your situation is unique!

    The first thing I would offer you is resist projecting past data onto the present.  When you do this, you set yourself up to be the one who repeats past behavior, and triggers others to repeat past drama.  The way that works best for me is to remember we are all doing best we can.  The only thing you have control of is you, so be your best, and don’t worry about them.

    Another suggestion would be to declare who you wish to be before you leave on the trip, and each day as you awaken while you are there.  If, for instance, you declare yourself to be peaceful, your doing would come from that space…you would ask yourself, consciously or not, “What would peace do here?”  This works for any state of being.  I often choose understanding.

    If you do these things, the possibility of drama diminishes.  And if it does occur, you are not the cause of the drama.  You can sit calmly in the middle of the chaos, and let others have the path they choose to take, knowing it no longer has to be yours.

    Therese

    (Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of the global website at www.ChangingChange.net, which offers spiritual assistance from a team of Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less, and offers insight, suggestions, and companionship during moments of unbidden, unexpected, unwelcome change on the journey of life. She may be contacted at Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com, where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

     

  • Missing the feeling of Unity I once had

    I have had the experience of knowing that I am one with everyone. It was a time in my life that I will never forget and would love to feel that again. I do not know if it feels better to have had this experience for a couple of years or to not have had it at all.  I feel like I am striving to “get there” again, but I understand that what you resists persists. I have to accept where I am at now and let it all flow as it will. I feel like I should be reading, having quiet time (meditation), and focusing on more positive thinking more often. I try to do this as often as I can, but sometimes it feels difficult to do this consistently because of the demands of my 3 little children. I am struggling to feel this sense of “we are all one” on a daily basis… Kim

    Dear Kim… You are incredibly blessed to have had a direct experience of Unity with everyone for two years! You have the consciousness of that now, which will make it easier to manifest again. This is true of anything you’ve had in your life. Once you’ve experienced something, you have the consciousness of it and can more easily create it again. This is why we see millionaires who lose it all only to make it all again!

    I can imagine that three wee ones are very time-consuming, but if you can carve out even fifteen minutes a day to get in touch deeply with your soul, it will help make the rest of your day feel more peaceful. “Stopping meditation” also works for busy moms on the go. Every so often, just stop what you’re doing for ten or fifteen seconds, close your eyes, and touch base with your soul. This is very refreshing! Before you know it, you’ll start to feel that connectedness again.

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to:  Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

  • How Can I Manifest a Baby?

    My husband and I have been trying to have a baby for over a year now, and I feel like we have tried literally everything, even IVF – needless to say nothing has worked.  I’m at my wits end with this process.  I want a child so badly, yet I can’t continue this cycle of disappointment, it’s making me miserable and is even beginning to affect my relationship with my husband.  Medically, chances of us conceiving are very low, but not impossible.  However, I am one who believes that anything is possible and I don’t want to give into the odds!  But what can I do?  Where is my baby?  Feeling very desperate at this point, don’t know if you can help but I follow CWG books closely and thought I’d give it a try.

    ~ Jeannie, Arkansas

     

    Jeannie my heart just aches for you.  I feel the pain in your words, and your frustration is palpable.  I so admire your strength, courage and perseverance, it speaks volumes to who you are as a person.  I wish I could wave my magic wand and make it happen for you.

    But since I can’t, I will offer you my intuition on your situation.  When we want something so badly in life that it consumes all of our attention and creates a boatload of negative feelings in us, the resistance that we feel around the whole subject actually begins pushing it away from us further.  Conversations with God describes the using of the words, “I want” as a declaration of lack, of the thing you want not being there right now, and the Universe responds to this and gives you more of the experience of wanting.  To take that even deeper, it isn’t the actual words “I want” that produce more of the wanting, it’s the vibration you are offering when you speak them (or, the Sponsoring Thought – the thought behind the thought).  For example, when a child sees a commercial about a cool new toy and exclaims in excitement, “I want that!”, he isn’t coming from a place of lack, he is coming from a place of desire and joy at the thought of having that toy.  But when a person living paycheck to paycheck declares in frustration, “I just want more money!”, they are all too aware and consumed by their lack of money.

    I’m describing the above to you, Jeannie, for two reasons: 1) You’ve created a lot of resistance (quite understandably, I might add) around becoming pregnant and 2) you’re speaking and thinking about it from the vibration of lack.  I know that may sound harsh, and I assure you that I am not implying that you caused any of these “problems” in the first place, I am simply pointing out how you can approach this energetically and spiritually, as I too, am a believer that anything is possible.  So, then, let’s look at what you can do about it.

    Declare your intention from a place of desire.  In other words, what can you say about this that actually feels good to say?  An example might be, “I look forward with joy and gratitude to the day when we conceive.”  Do you enjoy praying or communicating with your guides/angels?  Then by all means pray for it, but offer up a prayer of gratitude.  The gratitude acknowledges that it is already there, or is at least on its way.  One of my favorite prayers of gratitude from CWG is “thank you, God, for helping me to understand that this problem has already been solved for me.”  See how much better that feels?

    Next, back off from it.  Move from this state of resistance to a state of allowing.  You see, our only job here is to be clear on what we want and decide that it’s coming, and you only need to do this once – it’s the Universe’s job to figure out “the how”.  It doesn’t mean stop trying to have a baby, it means let go of the resistance around it, and take action from a good-feeling place.  So what might that look like?  It could look like diving into a fun project, getting artistic and creating something, practicing daily gratitude, taking up a hobby and inviting more fun and lightness into your life.  It could look like going out on dates with your husband and appreciating the free time the two of you have right now, making love simply to express how you feel for one another.

    In short, you know you are in a state of allowing when you feel good, you feel light.  Let it go for now.  Let the Universe do its job and give yourself a break.  Your faith and belief are so strong, Jeannie, I can feel that about you.  Backing off and giving yourself permission to feel good about life is your way of exercising that faith, and wonderful things come of it.

    Sending you lots of love throughout this process,

    Nova

     

    (Nova Wightman is a CWG Life Coach, as well as the owner and operator of Go Within Life Coaching, www.gowithincoaching.com, specializing in helping individuals blend their spirituality with their humanity in a way that makes life more enjoyable, easy, and fulfilling.  She can be reached at Nova@theglobalconversation.com. )

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to: Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com, where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

  • I am in need of such help right now.

    I am reading WECCE, and I am in need of such help right now. I am full of anxiety, fear, and loneliness for the first time in my life. During the past 2 months, my best friend moved away, my boyfriend, who I loved dearly, broke things off.  Then last week my dog was killed.  I know in my heart and soul that I am supposed to be going through these changes, but I’m having such a hard time letting things go. I built my life for two 1/2 years around my boyfriend.  I have lived alone in several cities with job transfers, etc. And I LOVE where I am living now, and I thought I had met someone with so many interests. I had some of the best times in my life with this person, but he could not give me the spiritual support and move on to build a future with me.  I completely lost and disliked myself.  I KNOW of all this, so why is my heart just clinging to everything?  Why can’t I feel ANY joy in anything I do or see?  I try and try to see the beauty in my home, in nature, in ALL things that brought me such great joy. I just want to let everything go..let go of the pain, let go of the wondering of how I manifested this all. I never imagined I would feel such loneliness – ever.  

    I know my pain will heal and I will feel (and eat) normally again. I will continue to pray and meditate to love myself more. Here it comes…BUT…loving yourself when you are BY yourself is pretty easy (I think), as I have lived alone quite a bit in my life.  The big test comes when you are joined with someone else. I have been emotionally unavailable and feared intimacy ALL my life – hence why I have attracted men that are the same. I want to do everything in my power to change that. How do I know when I’m really ready?  And to really know that my subconscious is going to attract someone that will be good for me?  Do I trust my feeling?  How do I lose the fear? I would appreciate any help….

    C.D.

    Dear C.D.,

    WECCE is about how to embrace Change (another word for God/Evolution), and how to choose how we live in that change.  Part of that process involves looking at our current Truth.  What version of that truth are we living?  Most of us are living in distorted truth.  We can, however, move pretty easily to apparent Truth by simply reframing it with no judgment.  For instance, “My boyfriend broke things off” could merely be “My boyfriend is not with me anymore. ”  “I completely lost and disliked myself” could be “I was not being who I really am in the relationship.”  Even “I can’t feel any joy” could be transformed with “I am experiencing a lack of joy right now,” which would easily allow you to experience the lack of joy with Gratitude, because you know it is only what you are feeling right now, not something that has to go on forever…unless you choose to let it go on forever.

    For every negative thought, there is the opposite positive one.  Look for these opposites, C.D., as you re-train yourself.  It takes practice!  If you are even reaching out, it means that you are beginning to do just that…practice being good to yourself!  Negativity is definitely not good for you or anyone else.

    Take a good look, and you will see your post is all about the past!  This has nothing to do, ultimately, with now…unless you allow it to be.  In reading WECCE, you will have read that this is all past data.  This past data came from many sources, all of which thought that they were protecting you in some way…and all of which were subconscious, and controlled by the ego.  The ego is the part of you that defines you as human, as an individual human, but, nonetheless, is also the part of us that operates out of fear.  This fear is designed to keep us in the familiar and actually stop us from moving into what is truly our better selves.  Fear holds us in place in the now, not in the manner of being present, but from the place of looking back and avoiding looking and moving forward.

    Life, as they say, begins at the edge of your comfort zone…and your comfort zone is fear.  Why do you wish to live your life in fear?  It is serving you in some way?   Since all we do serves us.  Do you get to define yourself as the person who is emotionally unavailable?  or the person who is fearful of intimacy?  In some way, this has served you, but do you wish it to continue to serve you?  Yes, we can choose to love what the past has shown us (in this case you know intimately what fear and unavailable feel like and how you are when you embrace them) and actually choose to be the opposite of that!  This is a world of context, of opposites, and if you know one thing, you are now very well able to know the other…if you choose to remember.

    I would take the “gut” test when you have a thought.  Your tummy will tell you if you are coming from fear or love.  Ask yourself why you even feel you have to have someone in your life right now.  How does the answer feel?  Look in the mirror and look into your eyes and very quietly tell yourself you love you…and keep doing it.

    The first time I read in CWG the part about saying out loud, “I love sex or money or…” and then it asked me to say loudly, “I love me!” I found it amazing that I was unable to say that without hesitation.   Wow!   And I am a pretty self-confident person, so I knew if it was difficult for me, it must be almost impossible for others.  I was okay with all of it, but not the unabashed loving of myself!

    C.D., not only can you tell yourself you love yourself, I would like to tell you something else…you are love!  Just by being here, you have demonstrated that you are love!  By writing this note, you have shown you can overcome fear, which is a supreme act of self love.  How wonderful is that?

    Be gentle with yourself and be proactive…choose!   You are choosing Change right now, actively, because passivity has not served you well.  Way to go!

    Therese

    (Therese Wilson is a published poet, and is the administrator of the global website at www.ChangingChange.net, which offers spiritual assistance from a team of Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less, and offers insight, suggestions, and companionship during moments of unbidden, unexpected, unwelcome change on the journey of life. She may be contacted at Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com, where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

     

  • How can I help the homeless find shelter?

    My wife called me crying because of a couple she found in a laundromat. I found out later they were homeless but chose to live their lives in the streets. My wife wanted to help them so we bought them food and gave them blankets and pillows. (I had tried to get them a room in nearby motels, but they were well-known and had created such a mess and “smell” before that the motels had to throw everything away.) Other people had paid cash for a room and then put the homeless couple in there without the manager being aware. In other words, there was “no room in the inn.”

    Because of my background in law enforcement I found some police officers and spoke to them about a homeless shelter. There are none in the city and there are up to 25 “couples” they are aware of living in wooded areas within the city limits. 

    I now feel I would like to help with love, money, and time, to help these people but do not have a clue where to start. Any suggestions?… Mickey

    Dear Mickey… How about soliciting help from the churches in your area? Perhaps you can put together a meeting with area church leaders asking them to help you implement a program called “Room In the Inn.”

    The homeless people can sleep in the church’s fellowship halls, taking turns on different nights so that it wouldn’t be overwhelming to any one church. If you can get 7 churches to commit, each church would have one night per week. If you can get 14 churches to help, that’s just one night every two weeks.

    The members can volunteer their time helping with meals and clean-up and have a couple of men from the church designated to stay overnight. The ladies can bring in potluck dinners and breakfasts.

    How’s that sound? Think how great you’ll feel if you get this going! And your sweet wife won’t have to cry anymore.

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to:  Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

  • Work Before Play or Play Before Work?

    I feel really stuck in life right now.  I’m doing everything that I think I want to be doing (pursuing my master’s degree, working in my chosen field, developing my spirituality, maintaining my health) yet I often notice that amidst it all I feel stagnant and unfulfilled even.  It doesn’t seem to add up.  I don’t necessarily want to change anything about my life right now, at least the direction of it, but I also know I don’t want to feel this way.  I would appreciate any insight you have on this please.

    Roberta, Michigan

    Hi Roberta,

    I’m going to answer your question with a question: what are you doing for fun?  You see, in the quest to live a fulfilled life, we often put a lot of focus on the stuff that we believe brings us happiness (career/purpose, money, stability, health, family, personal growth, etc.).  None of that is bad, of course, it just tends to carry a heavier energy of “seriousness,” an urgency to “get it done so I can be happy.”  Without a healthy dose of fun and variety in the mix, as well as inviting mindfulness (aka “being” within the “doing”), it’s very easy to find ourselves feeling stuck and even unfulfilled.  In fact, I believe fun is completely underrated in our society, that the mindset many people have that there’s only time for fun after the work is done is a huge disservice to their own happiness and well-being.  Fun and variety are the fuel that allows us to keep going with all the other important things in life!  And if you’re not having fun and enjoying what you’re doing, then what’s the point?  (Okay, so you can tell I’m a bit passionate about this subject.)

    Now, I recognize that I don’t know everything about your story, and I’m sure there are probably some other contributing factors to your feeling stuck, stagnant, and unfulfilled, but I’m going to give you a place to start:

    ~ Ask yourself how much “healthy” fun and variety you currently have in your life (i.e., the kind that fills you up, makes you feel good and doesn’t hurt anybody, least of all you).  Then, if you can’t think of anything or there are only one or two things that you “sometimes” do, ask yourself:

    ~ “How can I add more healthy fun and variety into my life on a regular basis?”  This may look like taking a class just for fun, joining a club, scheduling in consistent time to hang out with friends, or even including at least an hour of fun into your day EVERY day. Then do it. (I do the last one, by the way, as part of my work day.  And I work more efficiently because of it.)

    ~ Also, ask yourself how you can be more present in each of those areas you’ve identified in your life (school, work, spirituality, health).  A place to start might be in noticing what you love about each of those areas.  Another idea would be to choose the state of being you wish you were in on any given day and simply be that (a whole other topic).

    ~ Finally, if all else fails, partner with someone to help you through it, to help you get to the underlying reason behind your “stuckness” and who can help you navigate your way to flow, fulfillment, happiness, joy and freedom.  Hire a coach, work with a therapist, a spiritual counselor, whatever you feel drawn towards but do something.  It’s so much easier (and faster) than trying to do it alone.

    (Nova Wightman is a CWG Life Coach, as well as the owner and operator of Go Within Life Coaching, www.gowithincoaching.com, specializing in helping individuals blend their spirituality with their humanity in a way that makes life more enjoyable, easy, and fulfilling.  She can be reached at Nova@theglobalconversation.com. )

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to: Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com, where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

  • When everything changes…change everything

    (CA, a non-native English speaker, wrote a very long letter, and I am excerpting some of her content for the advice column.)

    CA, I understand that the real purpose of your letter was to get some answers to some of the larger questions of the day, centering around how the world is going to change with so much resistance to change.  That is a subject that I could speak to you about, one-on-one, extensively, but for the purposes of an Advice Column, I am going to focus on something else…how you are feeling about these things.

    CA, you used the words below as part of your description of the events the world is experiencing today:

    “.. as it is not part of my personality to engage in such conversations simply by fear of being categorized as illuminated or dangerous-

    Reactions are strong…resistance…doubt…catastrophe…vicious circle…how?…

    I feel very different from others in terms of convictions reactions behaviors since  early age so I stay discrete to avoid discrimination.”

    CA, I would like you to know that you are certainly not alone in feeling different.  You are not alone in feeling afraid and confused, and you are not alone in resisting change.  This is what our egos do to protect ourselves.  We stop having the conversations we really want to have because we are afraid of what other people think.  Attachment to family and friends is natural and strong. We are told, culturally, through religion and education, and in many more ways, that it is not possible and not proper for us to do anything that isn’t already acceptable. The problem is, when we do this, we ignore what we think.  I know it has been said so many times before, but loving ourselves is what comes first.  If we want to speak of things that could change the world into a better place, and don’t, we are depriving ourselves of our own voice, and depriving the world of the wisdom that just might have changed the world.   One voice really can do just that…change the world.

    Yes, it seems dramatic, but imagine if Jesus had kept silent, or the Buddha, or Gandhi, or Nelson Mandella…each only one voice, heard eventually by many.

    “I also read with great enthusiasm his article after election in your country as I am deeply convinced that if we do not share and care for the rest of the mankind and continue to build our society around the concept of separation we won’t go anywhere but to violence and despair for the majority of us. I read today that some readers accused him of mixing a spiritual role with politics, yet I think that this is exactly where we need to start as  society organization is today ruled by the economic and political sphere.”

    CA, see, you already know what you believe!  Now you get to choose to voice it or not.  It might not even be true that people will reject your ideas, as they did in the past.  It has been my experience that when I speak my truth, and speak it with kindness, as CWG suggests, I rarely get opposition…I may not get agreement, but I do not get opposition.  People do, however, walk away willing to think about what I have just shared with them.  I often find that others really do feel the same way I do, but are also afraid to speak what they really feel.

    I would suggest, also, that you be certain to understand that we are all doing the best we can, given the information we have about things.  When we know better, we do better.  One of the reasons we feel upset, after we know better, is that we think it is unfair that we have to behave better than everyone else!  It feels like quite a burden to be different than others…but I would suggest something else.  It might just be a burden lifted not having to be false to yourself.  Telling your own truth is actually incredibly liberating.

    “My understanding after all my readings is  that God sent us these Angels to allow us to experience what we have chosen to feel . But if I experience resistance, calomny , if I keep losing my job for unrational reasons with huge fear of financial precarity , how can I engage in changing the world with discussions?”

    Now, CA, you also get the chance to change your mind about how you feel about these things, and change your experience of them!  In “When Everything Changes, Change Everything,” it tells a little story about a rainy day, and how the same event can be experienced in very different ways.  Rain for the parade organizer was a disaster.  Rain for the farmer was a blessing!  Might these things in your life that are now calamities be viewed as opportunities?  Might they be you, on a soul level, asking you to reexamine your life, and your priorities?

    I know this sounds very cavalier, CA, and I know how frightening all of the life events you describe can be, but you do get to choose whether or not you are the parade organizer or the farmer.  This column will certainly not give you all of the answers you seek, but, hopefully it will give you some things to think about in your journey of finding your own answers.

    I believe that who we are in this world, and how we conduct our lives in this world, really does affect our world in ways that we will never understand.  I believe we must never deny our own voice, when it speaks our own truth, and that we all get to decide what that is.

    CA, if you haven’t already read the book “When Everything Changes, Change Everything,” I would recommend you do.  It can be read for free on the website listed below.  This book gives practical tools on how to change how we go through change.   It also has forums where you can discuss the book in relation to yourself and your journey.

    This world is sure changing like crazy right now, and the only thing we can really change is how we are in relation to that change.  You, however, are not alone, CA, in your journey through these times.

    Therese

    (Therese Wilson is the administrator of the global website at www.ChangingChange.net, which offers spiritual assistance from a team of Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less, and offers insight, suggestions, and companionship during moments of unbidden, unexpected, unwelcome change on the journey of life. She may be contacted at Therese@TheGlobalConversation.com.)

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com, where our team is waiting to hear from you.)

     


  • How to maintain a conscious relationship?

    I remember from reading the CWG books that Neale mentions here and there the concepts of building and maintaining a conscious relationship. However, I was wondering whether there is any specific material out there that is solely focused on this topic. Blessings and joy to you…Annalisa

    Dear Annalisa…Neale addressed a similar question in our Spiritual Mentoring Program call on Saturday by saying this:

    “1. Need nothing.  2. Understand everything.  3. Love all.”

    Please allow me to elaborate:

    1. In a relationship if we Need nothing specific from the other, we can save ourselves a lot of grief. For example, I have found that with my family, sometimes we are pulled in different directions, each of us having our own agenda, especially around the holidays. Things run much more smoothly for me if I don’t attach myself to any particular plan—if I don’t Need anything in particular to happen—allowing Life to lead me where it will. This appeases everyone, so therefore, I am at peace as well!

    2. Entire relationships, indeed, entire lives have been ruined by people who misunderstand the actions of another and hold grudges against them, rather than sitting down, talking things out, and arriving at mutual understanding about why they did what they did. When we Understand the reasons why others do what they do, forgiveness is automatic. Neale calls this “Forgiveness Forgone” because forgiveness is a foregone conclusion when we Understand the reasons people do things we might consider negative.

    3. To Love all doesn’t mean “free love” in the 1960s sense, as the hit song from that era, “Love the One You’re With” recommended. Rather, it means, Love everything that shows up. Byron Katie’s book Loving What Is explains this beautifully. Another author, Rick Steves, who is my favorite travel writer, says, “If something isn’t to your liking, change your liking.” This is a very profound statement that takes on a much deeper meaning than simply what to do while traveling. If we learn to love Life exactly as it is showing up—if we can see the perfection in all of Life—then we live the path of least resistance. This is not to say we are not at choice in every moment. We are, and we’re always invited by Life to Choose Again… to re-create ourselves anew in the next grandest version of the greatest vision ever we held about Who We Are. Yet, to do this while living a life resisting nothing is to walk the path of the great Masters.

    (Annie Sims is the Global Director of CWG Advanced Programs, is a Conversations With God Coach and author/instructor of the CWG Online School. To connect with Annie, please email her at Annie@TheGlobalConversation.com.

    (If you would like a question considered for publication, please submit your request to:  Advice@TheGlobalConversation.com where our team is waiting to hear from you.)