When in Hell, Don't Do As the Hellians!

"When you are going through hell don't stop to take pictures." - Wally Amos, better known as Famous Amos.

I am one of those who tends to not only take pictures, but start a huge scrap book.  Something in me thinks that if I have a detailed account carefully preserved it will somehow protect me from future pain.  Tricky ego.  The truth is that is the ego's trick to keep me in the pain.  How do I know?  Because I fell for it - many times!

When in hell - don't do as the Hellians!  I think of the Movie "What Dreams May Come" where the people in hell are moaning and groaning and pulling everyone around them down into the mire, gloom and doom.  I'm not saying you should never vent, and by all means if a painful feeling presents itself feel it. Move through it.  The key word being "through".  So many times we start to feel the feeling and turn around to run from it as fast as we can.  In turning around to run we get disoriented and end up running around in circles - in hell.

When in hell, have no fear.  It's the fear that gets ya.  Don't focus on the outer conflict, turmoil, struggle or whatever.  You don't have to go all sugary and lace with it either.  Just get present to the feeling that is presenting itself.  Have faith that you are moving through - not stuck forever in it.  Don't look down into the mire, look within to your innate strength. Heaven is there.

What Your Experience Is Telling You

"Everything you behold without is a judgment of what you beheld within." -A Course In Miracles

So what have you "beheld within"?  (Note the past tense?) You can deduce this by what you are experiencing now.  Allow your experience to be your guide not your "reality."

Are you experiencing harmony or dissension in your relationships?  Answer that and you can discern whether or not you have beheld harmony or dissension within.  Often we are attacking ourselves with very little or no awareness.

Are you experiencing abundant health, abundant wealth, abundant joy?  If not, you are not beholding it within.

Do you experience giving and receiving unconditional love and non-judgement?  Answer that and you can discern whether or not you have beheld unconditional love and non-judgement towards yourself.

Answering these questions is not a way to beat yourself up.  All disharmony without is a call to harmony within. Covering your pain with a coating of "harmony" will not work, rather asking your pain for guidance towards what is out of alignment and bringing it back to Truth will work. Ask with a curious heart.  Inquire as a means to find the place that is blocking you and with the intention of beholding true perspective within.

Are you experiencing light, peace and joy.  If so, you are beholding these things.  Focus there.
 

Creative Discovering Beginnings

I developed an interest in creative journalling in the early 1990's. The images I have shared here were some of the first entries into my journal. They were drawn at a time that was filled with joy and love, and also haunted with sadness, pain and anger. I drew the two entries on the same day, illustrating the roller coaster of emotions that seemed to plague my life.

The awareness that followed deepened my interest in creative journalling, and sparked my inspiration to create Creative Discovering workshops. Still, twenty years later I look at these images that are really quite simple and were drawn in a matter of minutes, and become captivated by the depth of my experience and the accuracy of expression that had escaped words for me at the time.

Today's Journal/Creative Journal prompt:

Over the next few days or weeks if you find yourself experiencing an intense emotion, comfortable or uncomfortable, grab your journal and express........

Feather or Hammer

"The universe will teach us our lessons with the tickle of a feather or the whomp of a sledgehammer, depending on how open we are to learning the particular lesson. Getting stubborn and defensive invites the sledgehammer; getting open and curious invites the feather. It took me a long time to figure out who was in charge of the painfulness of my lessons." -Gay Hendricks, The Big Leap

When I read this passage I had to laugh out loud. Not only can I relate, but even after knowing who is in charge of the painfulness of my lessons I still find myself in the path of that hammer.

This is when I need to re-mind myself - progress not perfection. And, focus on the fact that I am choosing the feather more and more often. WHEW!