Tag Archives: trust

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Hello Everyone!

I am getting excited about going the annual Centers for Spiritual Living Convention in a couple of weeks! If you are going I would love to see you!

And, I would also love to see you at a book study I will be offering, beginning in March. It is based on the book called Trust: Mastering the Four Essential Elements of Trust, by Iyanla Vanzant. This book study will be a facilitated book study, meaning we won’t just be reading together but I will be guiding us into a deep dive of this great work. It will be held on Mondays, beginning March 4, for 5 weeks, from 2-4 PM Pacific time, via Zoom. Contact me to sign up.

And I’d like to share with you an insight I had simply by reading the Introduction in this book.

I think releasing needs to be added to the official list of spiritual practices in my latest book. So I’m going to add it. 

Now, you may be wondering why it wasn’t there in the first place. 

Well!

There’s the little question of what we are releasing to. Because in Science of Mind we teach that God isn’t something that is separate from us, so releasing gets a bit tricky. But stick with me!

So let me clarify a bit. And back up a bit as well. Releasing can also be called letting go or allowing. It’s the opposite of controlling. Go with the flow. Releasing is about faith and trust. Control is about fear.

And there is a happy medium there. One has to set boundaries, and take care of oneself. One can’t just willy nilly go along with whatever happens to come along, that just makes one a victim. 

I’ve learned all this stuff through personal experience. 

And to be honest, I’ve never been one to release. Mostly because my understanding of God is that It doesn’t do things, It doesn’t make decisions for us, It isn’t something that just takes care of things. God is an energy force that is a part of us, just as we are a part of It, that provides us with the power to do things, make our own decisions and take care of things. So if I release, I have nothing to release to.

Except I was experiencing some problems. Unpleasant ones. Stubborn ones. Unsolvable ones. I tried everything, and nothing worked. It was frustrating! I kept asking what these problems were wanting me to know, what they were trying to teach me, and I wasn’t getting any answers. I was just getting frustrated. 

And then, through a series of tiny little events, it occurred to me that I needed to release. In a whole bunch of areas of my life.

So I did. 

And I got instant relief.

But there’s still the whole question of what I’m releasing to. 

And I still don’t quite know. But here’s the deal: I don’t have to know. I just need to set the intention to release, and let it happen. I don’t need to worry about the how or the what. 

All I can tell you is that when I did that, I got instant relief. Instant. 

I took my blood pressure, and yep, instant relief. My veins are very grateful I did that releasing.

Yep. This spiritual stuff is powerful. 

So if you are experiencing problems, try releasing. Just letting go. Leave the question as to what you are releasing to. That is not the point here. The point is just to release. Let it go. Turn it in. Allow. 

Simply set the intention. Don’t worry about how to do it, or what to release to. Just release.

Today I release and feel the peace that results.

Thank you! Rev. Karen

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Quotes for today that are tickling my fancy:

Alan Watts: “If we cling to a belief in god, we cannot likewise have faith, since faith is not clinging but letting go.”

Joseph Campbell: “… to worship a god, you must become that god. No matter what you call the god or think it is, the god you worship is the one you are capable of becoming. The power of a deity is that it personifies a power that is in Nature and in your nature. When you find that level, then you are in play. That is the work of art in general, because art really is a worship.”

Me, yesterday, in conversation with a friend: “instead of going with the flow, I want to take it deeper. I want to TRUST the flow.” Because trusting the flow means I can truly let go. Sometimes, when I’m just going with the flow, I’m still attempting to control or manipulate it. Truly letting go takes trust. Which then means I must explore what it is I am trusting.

Then there is this, from Obi Wan Kenobi: “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together.”

The Force is, for me, what god is.

And lest you scoff at me quoting fictional movie characters, I’ll just say that the creator of Star Wars, George Lucas, studied Science of Mind. It is my personal opinion that the concepts in the Star Wars movies are great illustrations of this wonderful teaching that has so effectively allowed me to live an even greater life than I ever imagined.

So here I am, trusting, embodying, having faith instead of belief. Asking myself, what does that look like in every day life? It is an interesting exercise in self reflection. If I trust, then I must also accept. Oh, and here’s another comment, made by me when asked by my horse trainer/equine therapist, as she does after every lesson “what did you learn today?”: “allow but continue on.”

This means I must allow what is happening (which for me means I don’t resist it, judge it, try to manipulate it, or attempt to control it) but also continue on with my mission in life. Whether that mission is to continue the horse back ride or to continue doing my minister work in the world or continue doing the laundry or continue to know the good for myself and others. I must allow but also continue on. And that takes trust, and embodying, and having faith.

Such are my thoughts today as I move out into the world to get a massage and do a wedding. And see the completion of the derockifying of my riding trail. WEEHAW! Can’t wait to ride on it!

Today I trust, embody the good, and have faith. Oh, and I play today. And because I also want to play a bit, because play is always a part of things in my life, I’m going to include an oldie but a goodie meme I made three years ago. Because it takes trust, embodiment and faith to do things that are considered crazy, delusional and ambitious. And that, my friends, is what a life looks like when one lives in trust, embodiment and faith.