Week 17HJ — Struggle

I wasn’t able to attend the webinar for the Hero’s Journey week, so on the following Monday evening, I attempted to watch it. There were some technical issues and I couldn’t get very far into the replay, so I gave up and didn’t try again. A similar situation came up with week 20. When I tried to watch the replay, it wasn’t available. So, I watched Week17HJ instead.

That’s when I noticed some personal growth. I didn’t get upset about week 20 not being available. Honest. No disgruntlement or frustration.

And, even better, several minutes into listening to Hero’s Journey, I recognized that that was what I needed to hear on that day and in that moment. I was going through a rough patch, and though I don’t recall exact sentences, I know the message I heard was along the lines of “You are struggling now and that means real growth/progress is happening.” It was hopeful, encouraging, and inspiring. I am inspired to keep moving forward, to keep trying, to do my best to live this day as if it is my last.

And now … on to that Week 20 webinar replay…

Week 19 —Power of Thought

Haanel

paragraph 2 — “In seeking the truth, we are seeking ultimate cause; we know that every human experience is an effect; then if we may ascertain the cause, and if we shall find that this cause is one which we can consciously control, the effect or the experience will be within our control also.”

paragraph 12 — “We are in the presence of continual change, and we know that this change is but the evolution of the Universal Mind, the grand process whereby all things are continually being created anew, and we come to know that matter is but a form which Mind takes and is therefore simply a condition. Matter has no principle; Mind is the only principle.”

paragraph 17 — “You may know that thought constantly, eternally is taking form, is forever seeking expression … if your thought is powerful, constructive, and positive, this will be plainly evident in the state of your health, your business and your environment; if your thought is weak, critical, destructive and negative generally, it will manifest in your body as fear, worry and nervousness, in your finance as lack and limitation, and in discordant conditions in your environment.”

Week 18 — Growth

Haanel — paragraphs 24, 25, & 29

“In order to grow we must obtain what is essential for our growth, but as we are at all times a complete thought entity, this completeness makes it possible for us to receive only as we give …”

“It is clear, therefore, that thoughts of abundance will respond only to similar thoughts; … Affluence within is found to be the secret of attraction for affluence without…”

“Power depends upon consciousness of power; unless we use it, we shall lose it, and unless we are conscious of it, we cannot use it.”

Week 17A —The Present is a Gift

Scroll V; pg 74-75

“I will live this day as if it is my last.

“This day is all I have and these hours are now my eternity. I greet this sunrise with cries of joy as a prisoner who is reprieved from death. I lift mine arms with thanks for this priceless gift of a new day.”

Today, a friend said that he hopes his day at work is busy so that the day will go by faster. This comment gave me pause. I wonder how often I have wished my day away, as if the next day is a given, granted without question.

Each day I have is a gift, especially since I am fortunate enough to awake, most days, feeling well and healthy in my safe, quiet and comfortable home. Scroll V reminds me to awaken with gratitude, joy, and love in my heart.

“I will live this day as if it is my last.”

Week 17 — More Intuition

The year 2016 was my year of Courage. I have chosen Listen as my theme for 2017.

Haanel – Paragraph 23 & 24

“Intuition arrives at conclusions without the aid of experience or memory. Intuition often solves problems that are beyond the grasp of the reasoning power. Intuition often comes with a suddenness that is startling; it reveals the truth for which we are searching, so directly that it seems to come from a higher power. Intuition can be cultivated and developed; in order to do this it must be recognized and appreciated; if the intuitive visitor is given a royal welcome when he comes, he will come again; the more cordial the welcome the more frequent his visits will become, but if he is ignored or neglected he will make his visits few and far apart.”

“Intuition usually comes in Silence; great minds see solitude frequently; it is here that all the larger problems of life are worked out…”

Week 16 —Visualization

Haanel – paragraph 37

“For your exercise this week, try to bring yourself to a realization of the important fact that harmony and happiness are states of consciousness and do not depend upon the possession of things. That things are effects and come as a consequence of correct mental states. So that if we desire material possession of any kind our chief concern should be to acquire the mental attitude which will bring about the result desired…”

 

Week 15 — Insight

I have been slipping, slipping, slipping into non-doing. Haanel’s writings are getting more dense, and I find I cannot respond with intelligent thoughts. So, in order to do something, I will find two or three favorite sentences from each lesson and, at the very least, post those.

Paragraphs 32, 33, 34, 35:

“Insight enables us to be prepared for the obstacles which we shall meet…”

“Insight enables us to plan to advantage and turn our thought and attention in the right direction…”

“Insight is therefore absolutely necessary for the development of any great achievement…”

“Insight is a product of the world within and is developed in the Silence, by concentration.”

Week 14 -The Universal Energy

“… this creative power does not originate in the individual, but in the Universal, which is the source and fountain of all energy and substance; the individual is simply the channel for the distribution of this energy.”  Haanel – Part Fourteen, par. 6

My New Year’s prayer is to be an open channel so that all whom I encounter may feel the Love and Power of Universal Energy.

Week 13 – Validating Self

In the past few weeks, one requirement of the MKMME course has been to write down 30 – 50 positive things about myself, good things I have done or achieved, or experiences I have had, two weeks in a row. That is a minimum of 60 things. I thought this would be an easy task. I am a good person and have lived plenty long enough to have done and experienced 60 good things in my life. So I was caught off-guard when I found myself struggling to think of 30 things. I understand the idea that the “subbie” doesn’t differentiate between big things and little things, but I  had difficulty writing down the “insignificant” ones. It’s true that thought is powerful. The negative self-talk kept trying to rear up and tell me, “That’s not worth writing down.”

I wonder about this tendency in myself to minimize the good about myself. Someone pays me a compliment and my first internal reaction is to deflect the attention. It is with conscious effort that I now can smile and say thank you, without attaching any sort of excuse or explanation. When and why did recognizing and acknowledging my self-worth become a chore rather than a celebration?

This assignment (I know, we are not supposed to call them assignments :] ) has been one of the most powerful in getting me to look inward. Now, the next step is to read those cards out loud, with enthusiasm! and believe.

Week 12 -Mental Focus

In the introduction to Haanel’s week 12 lesson, it reads: “The time and thought which most persons waste in aimless effort would accomplish wonders if properly directed with some special object in view. In order to do this, it is necessary to center your mental focus upon a specific thought and hold it there, to the exclusion of all other thoughts.” It goes on to describe bringing a picture into clear view with the viewfinder of a camera and how that relates to the power of concentration. What a powerful analogy!

There have been times in my life when I’ve had such focus, or at least, something near to that focus. (One friend has described me as a squirrel who is focused on that single nut…) 30 years ago, I decided it was time for me to attend college and get my teaching credential. It took six years to finish. I remember well how driven I was to get that credential in my hand and to get my first teaching job. I had a clear view of my burning desire, did the work to get there, and am now in my 22nd year of teaching.

Lately, I have been expressing my desire to be finished with teaching. In fact, saying that out loud was the reason my sister encouraged me to take the MKMME course. Over the past couple of years, I have gone back and forth between being hopeful about early retirement, and accepting the reality that I must teach eight more years. Then I wrote my Definite Major Purpose. I was instructed to write my desire and to not worry about how to get there. With the exercises, the “how” will present itself, effortlessly. After reading lesson 12, I know I need to have as clear a view of my desire to be a retired teacher as I did to be a teacher. I have lit the fire under that idea and it is beginning to burn hot. The answer to how that will happen hasn’t fully presented itself yet, but a couple of possibilities have begun to tickle the outer edges of reality.

I persist. I succeed.