The Global Conversation

Tag: soul

  • Annoyed with Positive Thinking

    I’m a believer in the power of positive thinking, I know I feel better and my life seems better when I look on the bright side of things, but what I don’t understand is what are you supposed to do when something really upsetting happens and you’re, well, upset?  It doesn’t feel right to try to force myself to be positive and look at the bright side in that moment, and honestly sometimes I physically can’t!  Yet what I continuously hear from others is “think positively”, “expect things to work out”, and that only irritates me further.  Don’t get me wrong, I want to believe in this line of thinking, law of attraction and all of that, I just don’t think I fully understand it.  Can you clarify?

    Marion, Chicago 

    Hi Marion,

    I can’t help but giggle a little upon reading your words, not because I’m laughing at you but because I so know what you’re talking about, and what it feels like when you encounter someone who is trying to talk you out of the way you are currently feeling.  You’re right, it kind of just makes you want to slap them upside the head!  (Figure of speech, of course, meant lightly.)

    There is something that you may not currently understand about this whole positive thought thing, the understanding of which could change everything.  I love that you noticed that “it doesn’t feel right to try to force myself to be positive”, because that feeling is informing you of something right there – that it’s not yet time to move on from what you’re feeling.  Okay, without getting too wordy I will try to clarify.  Our feelings and emotions are some of our greatest tools, and CWG says “feelings are the language of the soul.”  That is, your soul communicates with you through your feelings, so to try to condemn what you are feeling, no matter what it is, and force it away is denying yourself communication from YOU, communication that could be very helpful to what you’re currently experiencing in life.  Not to mention it’s impossible because “what you resist persists”, and if you attempt to push those feelings away, you can bet your bottom that they will just keep coming back.  So it’s always in your best interest to acknowledge and validate what you’re feeling, and look to see what it’s pointing to.  Are you sad?  What does that tell you about what you want?  Does something feel “off”?  What needs to be adjusted to feel “on” again?

    Regarding the law of attraction and positive thought movement, the piece that many miss is that it’s not wrong or bad to feel down, negative, upset, etc.; accept that that is going to happen in life.  Even the greatest of masters and enlightened ones out there feel those “negative” emotions still, but the difference is they also recognize they are gifts, tools, and use them for the purpose in which they were intended.  They allow themselves to feel what they are feeling, and decide what it means.  But they don’t stay there.  That’s perhaps the most important part: feel what you’re feeling, but don’t stay there, be willing to “move up” the emotional scale as soon as you’ve gotten what you need.  If you wallow in your despair, sadness, anger, frustration, etc., the process of creation/law of attraction will bring you more of that.  But if you give it meaning, and choose your next highest thought, word or deed, you will vibrate at a higher level and the process of creation/law of attraction will bring you more of that.  A much better route if you ask me.

    So, Marion, strive to give yourself permission to feel however you feel without judgment.  Then, take a deeper look at those feelings, and ask yourself, or your soul, what they are showing you about you, your life, and what you want.  It is very helpful to sit down and journal about this, even write out a dialogue with your soul.  Some of the answers may even surprise you.  Positive thinking, focusing on gratitude and the “good stuff”, is an incredibly wonderful practice to adopt, but you will find the most success with it if you factor in all of the above as well.  Besides, we are all of it, the good and the bad, the positive and the negative…we are wonderfully and beautifully human.

     

    (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.)

    An additional resource:  ChangingChange.net offers spiritual assistance from a team of non-professional/volunteer Spiritual Helpers responding to every post from readers within 24 hours or less. Nothing on the CCN site should be construed or is intended to take the place of or be in any way similar to professional therapeutic or counseling services.  The site functions with the gracious willing assistance of lay persons without credentials or experience in the helping professions.  What these volunteers possess is an awareness of the theology of Conversations with God.  It is from this context that they offer insight, suggestions, and spiritual support during moments of unbidden, unexpected, or unwelcome change on the journey of life.

  • Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

    I am a 28-year-old Indian woman.  I am quite attractive and a very loving person but have never been in a romantic relationship.  For some reason, the people whom I have fallen for have never reciprocated my love.  In India, marriages may also be arranged by your friends or family.  I really want to have love in my life, but I want it to come naturally. I do not want to look for a partner or go for an arranged marriage. I am really confused as to whether I should make a conscious effort, like joining a matrimonial site, or do I wait for love to come by?  I really can’t imagine getting married to a person whom I do not love…please guide.

    Pilar, India 

    Hi Pilar,

    First of all, thank you for reaching out, for listening to the voice of your soul and being brave enough to ask if there is another way to find love that is more in alignment with who you really are, as well as how to find it.  The answer to your question of whether or not to go actively searching for it or wait for love to come by is…neither.  Instead, here are two other approaches that I’m going to offer you today, Pilar:

    One of the greatest messages from Conversations with God is that if there is something you’d like to experience in life, the quickest way to do so is to give it away, give it to another.  The very act of doing so is a statement to the Universe that it is yours to give, and in the actual giving of it, you are indeed experiencing that thing you said you wanted to experience.  For example, for someone who wants to experience being rich, sharing what little they do have with someone who has even less can produce a tremendous experience of being rich.  Now, in the situation of intimate love, this can be kind of challenging.  It doesn’t necessarily mean going around telling everyone you see that you’re in love with them (unless, of course, that serves you).  Instead, it means fully expressing all kinds of love – to your family, your friends, your pets, your fellow humans walking their own path.  It also means giving yourself the experience of being in love with you.  Treat yourself with the same love, appreciation, respect, kindness and tenderness that you would your significant other.  Take the time to express that love to yourself, through loving thoughts, words, and deeds.  You see, what happens when you do this is that your focus is shifted towards love itself, versus the perceived lack of it in your life, and via the process of creation, you can’t help but call forth more of it into your life.

    The second approach is an approach that I would offer, no matter what the external challenge or problem, is to first of all stop worrying about how to make it happen (in other words, get out of the energy of the problem, as no solution is ever available in the same energy the problem exists in), and to go within and focus on your own alignment.  Neale calls this your “soul’s agenda” and offers the powerful question, “What does this thing (problem, choice, situation, etc.) have to do with my soul’s agenda?”  When you are living from your soul’s agenda, or living from a place of alignment, everything else quite literally comes together.  It works itself out.  In other words, love finds you, you don’t have to find it.  By the consistent attention to and raising of your own vibration, you open the door to allowing all of the things you desire in life to come through, and, in the process, you get to experience all of those feelings you thought you could experience only in the having of something external to you.  You get to experience them right here, right now.  It’s incredible.

    So what does that look like, this alignment thing, or how do you tune into your soul’s agenda?  By focusing your attention inward, through meditation, journaling, practicing daily gratitude, whatever you resonate with that allows you to connect to that source within.  But here’s the key:  do so consistently.  Sometimes even the simple posing of the powerful question “what does this have to do with my soul’s agenda?” or even “what would my soul do here?”, without consciously trying to answer it, is enough to shift your attention, and the answer appears right exactly when it needs to.

    Try the above approaches, Pilar, and much love to you in the process.

     (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 Hear Voices

    That’s right, I hear voices — four of them actually.  And tonight I recognized them and saw very clearly what was happening, and it started with a prayer.  I prayed while laying in savasana after an inspiring yoga class.  My prayer was a simple one, a typical one even.  I knew I had to get this blog up.  And I am somewhat of an inspirational writer.  What I mean by that is when something in my life inspires me, the thoughts come fast and furious.  When this happens, I need to get to the computer quickly or at the very least a pad and pen.

    This past week, I haven’t had the opportunity to let those things that I felt inspired to write about get written down or entered into the computer.  My busy life was stringing out my current blog past when it was time to change it and I needed some inspiration.  So I prayed.  I asked God in what I recognized was my voice, “God, please bring through me the words that those reading my blog this week are seeking to hear.”  I continued in my head with the invocation, although this one had a different voice, albeit it was still my voice. The inflection was not as strong and committed, and it stuttered a little.

    The prayer continued in this shaky voice, “Please, God, let this blog be of great service.”

    This is where it became interesting.  Another voice almost simultaneously, yet seemingly behind the shaky voice, a higher pitched, tense, and uneasy voice, was saying, “Let this be of great service to me as well.”

    Just as that voice started to say that, another voice came in and chimed, “You can’t ask for this to serve you!”  This voice was clearly different, as were all four of the voices, yet they were, strangely enough, all my voice.  It was very clear to me while this was happening ,that these were all my thoughts with my different data attached to them surrounding what each statement was.

    This noticing of my thoughts, and the voices attached to them, was fairly unique to me.  I have listened to the voices in my head many times and always wondered what was going on there.  I have been intrigued about how many different levels there are in my mind.  And that kicked off another whole set of thoughts and voices.

    The thought process fascinated me, especially with the level of clarity and awareness in which it occurred.  I quickly had the thought, “This is the blog!”  As soon as I made that decision, I had two simultaneous things going on in my head.

    The first was, “Don’t forget this!”  I began to repeat the topic over and over in my head so I would remember: “I hear voices, I hear voices…”  While repeating that mantra, my secondary thoughts were flying about, “How does this tie in to addiction?”  One voice said, “You can’t write about something like that.   What if it harms someone?”  While immediately another voice said, “Oh, my God, people who hear voices need to read this.  They need to know that maybe those voices are there to bring awareness to our thoughts.”  This very same voice said, “You must write this article.”

    And so that conversation took place in my head in a two-minute span while laying on a floor in a 105 degree room, soaking wet after a ninety-minute yoga class where every aspect of my being was pushed to the limits.  This incredible insight happened because I took time for myself.  I made time for me and only me to honor what God has given me, a beautiful mind capable of multi-layered thought, an incredible body that is able to do more than I ever give it credit for, and a soul in which to rely upon and seek wisdom, compassion, discipline, and insight from.

    You see, recovery is about always seeking greater insight into ourselves, the world around us, and to expand our consciousness of what we believe our Creator to be.  If I seek to remain open, and never declare anything to be the ultimate truth, that leaves me with the power to recreate myself and my world at any moment.  When you are in a state of mind that is seeking higher states of Divinity, there is no room for relapse.

    I understand that for some hearing voices is a sign of mental illness, and that should not be taken lightly, nor should it be made fun of.  What I am encouraging people to do here is take a concept and think deeply on it.  What I did only took two minutes and the feeling and inspiration was phenomenal.

    (Kevin McCormack is a Conversations with God Life Coach, a Spiritual helper on www.changingchange.net, and an Addictions recovery advisor.  You can visit his website for more information at www.Kevin-Spiritualmentor.com  To connect with Kevin, please email him at Kevin@theglobalconversation.com)

  • Bring on the bliss

    For those of you yearning to hear the internal whispers of your soul amidst the noisy chatter of an unruly mind…for those of you longing to experience the calm bliss of simply “being” when your experience of life at this moment feels like a never-ending cycle of “doing”…perhaps the soothing voice and gentle rhythms of Snatam Kaur is something you would be willing to make a regular part of your day.

    The transcendent power and healing qualities of the devotional chants of Snatam Kaur have elevated it to become one of my most beloved choices in my musical collection.   Her songs combine a unique blend of ancient chants sung in Gurumukhi, the sacred language of the Sikhs, and English.

    Snatam Kaur (whose name means universal, nucleus, and friend to all) uses her music to bridge diverse cultures, faiths, and traditions, and to promote peace and inner strength.  When asked what her definition of ‘peace’ is, she replied, “I feel peace is defined in each person’s life in the moments of their greatest struggles and challenges. Peace is the ability to stay true to yourself, and in any situation find the light or find the way to grow and transform in that situation, while uplifting yourself and other people.”

    The purity and clarity of Snatam’s voice radiates and her soft spiritual chants touch your soul.  Her albums “Anand,” “Celebrate Peace,” and “Grace” are just a few of my personal favorites.  You will quickly realize that understanding the language in some of the songs is not a necessary element to having a profound experience of bliss and peace, that her music transcends the confines of any one particular language, and that her universal message of oneness is one that is deeply felt.

    The book When Everything Changes, Change Everything speaks to the importance of meditation, whether that be a sitting meditation, a walking meditation, or a “doing” meditation; that some form of meditation is “the single most important commitment of your entire life: a commitment to your soul, to be with your soul, to meet your soul, to hear and listen to and interact with your soul.” 

    If your attempts at meditation thus far have been unsuccessful, I invite you to consider incorporating the sacred mantras of Snatam Kaur as a gentle assistive tool to elevate your meditative experience to the next level.

    I close now with the lyrics to one of Snatam’s songs, “Long Time Sun,” an old Irish blessing which is currently sung by thousands worldwide as a parting prayer in Kundalini yoga classes:

    “May the Long Time Sun
    Shine upon you
    All love surround you
    And the pure light within you
    Guide your way on
    Guide your way on.    “

    You may read more about Snatam Kaur and purchase her music on her website:

    www.snatamkaur.com 

    (If there is a book, movie, music CD, etc. that you would like to recommend to our worldwide audience, please submit it to our Managing Editor, Lisa McCormack, for possible publication in this space. Not all submissions can be published, due to the number of submissions and sometimes because of other content considerations, but all are encouraged. Send submissions to Lisa@TheGlobalConversation.com. Please label the topic: “Review”)