Feeding anger about things we can't control is distracting, and while that is sometimes exactly why we do it, it doesn't make our lives any better.
The above sentence was a closing comment I just made on a message board and I think it is something we all need to be reminded of from time to time. Maybe the reason I've noticed this with people so much recently is because I need to remember it. (I do get that.) In the hopes that my introspection will help you, here are some reasons why I get into misdirected anger ...
1. Being angry about something I can't control distracts me from dealing with something I want to ignore. I should be dealing with it, I can have an impact, but I don't want to deal with it so I divert my energy onto something else that is futile and drains my thoughts.
2. Being angry that others are not doing what they can/should be doing to address their problems is both a distraction (see #1), and it is a way of consoling myself ... at least I don't that, I would do that differently etc. Their problems may be ones I have and/or are willing to address, so I can pretend that I deal with all of my issues since I deal with THOSE issues.
3. Distracted anger keeps me angry. If I delve too much into why I am really angry, I'll find that I feel hurt.
Anger masks pain, and until I am willing to deal with the pain, until I am willing to know my real intentions, until I am willing to move forward, it's just easier to stay angry and the best way for me to stay angry is to be angry about something I can't control.
There is no end to that anger.
Copyright © 2009, Lisa Wagner
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
Miracle Thought
If you are a student of A Course in Miracles, if you enjoy listening to Marianne Williamson, or you just want a five minute boost in living a more miraculous life - check out Marianne's Miracle Thought podcast, new each weekday. It's available through iTunes or get all the info from her site www.marianne.com.
It's a joy and a blessing.
It's a joy and a blessing.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Ultimate Relaxation
I have a new guided meditations CD now available on iTunes. It should be at Amazon in April 2009. Here's a little about it:
Ultimate Relaxation and Daily Renewal: Nourish Your Mind, Body and Spirit
This collection of 10 guided meditations includes beautiful music, ocean waves and falling rain. They are designed to help you manage anxiety and stress from the moment you awake and begin your day, and each one contains a unique focus providing you with several different ways to relax, and eventually drift off to restful sleep at the end of your day.
Sunrise: Morning Renewal - This gentle awakening helps you to begin your day with peace and clarity, leading to a more peaceful and centered day.
Creating a Day of Purpose - This meditation brings clarity and purpose to each day, even those filled with quiet, simple actions.
Calming Waters for Anxiety Release - Learn to detach from your anxious thoughts and release them while listening to falling rain.
Mental Oasis - Let this short meditation help you to find an oasis of tranquility in the middle of a hectic day.
Silencing the Mental Chatter - Silence the runaway chatter racing through your mind.
Midday Break - Enjoy this short break in the day for a quick renewal.
Releasing Anxiety - Release the anxiety you are feeling in the moment, as well as sources of more persistent anxiety.
Decompress and Release the Day's Stress - Release all the thoughts that have collected throughout the day.
Ultimate Relaxation - Experience deep relaxation from your day at a beautiful beach.
Sunset: Falling Asleep - This meditation will guide you to relax your mind and body, and drift off to sleep.
Copyright © 2009, Lisa Wagner
Sunday, February 1, 2009
He Wishes For The Cloths of Heaven
Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half-light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.
W.B. Yeats
Monday, December 29, 2008
Form vs Content
This will be my last post in 2008, so I'd like to close out the year with one more entry on ACIM.
"Take not the form for content, for the form is but a means for content. And the frame is but a means to hold the picture up, so that it can be seen. A frame that hides the picture has no purpose. It cannot be a frame if it is what you see. Without the picture is the frame without its meaning. Its purpose is to set the picture off, and not itself." (ACIM, page 485 of text)
The distinction the course makes between from and content is significant. This distinction has dramatically altered the effectiveness of prayer for me. For instance, instead of praying that God guide me to a new job, I pray that God guide me to find peace and joy through the work I do in the world. Sometimes this has led me to a new job, sometimes this has led me to experience my current job differently.
According to the teachings of ACIM, the content here is peace and joy, or you might say my desire and willingness to find peace and joy in my life. Whether or not I get a new job, the circumstances of my current job change, or simply something in my perception about my current job changes, is about form. The course teaches me to focus on content; to attach to content, but not form. Rather than decide on form and then ask God to deliver peace and happiness to me in a certain way, I cultivate my willingness for peace and joy, and then follow where my heart leads me. The same thing applies to relationships, how and where I live ... to every aspect of my life.
This understanding of form and content has also opened me up to new possibilities, and deepened the gratitude I feel for the blessings in my life. By focusing on the content and recognizing that God knows what form is best for me, I have been able to embrace opportunities I would have never noticed before. I have also experienced a renewed appreciation for things already in my life. An instantaneous miracle occurs when I suddenly see and embrace what is in my life right now.
We may say that we believe in the power of love, a limitless God, an ever abundant Universe, and yet we limit our opportunities for fulfillment because we fixate on the form of how that fulfillment is supposed to look. No matter how perfect a particular form of your dreams may seem to you, consider the possibility that God holds even bigger dreams for you and knows exactly how to shape the form of that dream to bring you the most peace, joy & contentment.
Daily Meditation: Today I surrender all my desires to God, and open myself to His perfect gifts for me.
Copyright © 2008, Lisa Wagner
"Take not the form for content, for the form is but a means for content. And the frame is but a means to hold the picture up, so that it can be seen. A frame that hides the picture has no purpose. It cannot be a frame if it is what you see. Without the picture is the frame without its meaning. Its purpose is to set the picture off, and not itself." (ACIM, page 485 of text)
The distinction the course makes between from and content is significant. This distinction has dramatically altered the effectiveness of prayer for me. For instance, instead of praying that God guide me to a new job, I pray that God guide me to find peace and joy through the work I do in the world. Sometimes this has led me to a new job, sometimes this has led me to experience my current job differently.
According to the teachings of ACIM, the content here is peace and joy, or you might say my desire and willingness to find peace and joy in my life. Whether or not I get a new job, the circumstances of my current job change, or simply something in my perception about my current job changes, is about form. The course teaches me to focus on content; to attach to content, but not form. Rather than decide on form and then ask God to deliver peace and happiness to me in a certain way, I cultivate my willingness for peace and joy, and then follow where my heart leads me. The same thing applies to relationships, how and where I live ... to every aspect of my life.
This understanding of form and content has also opened me up to new possibilities, and deepened the gratitude I feel for the blessings in my life. By focusing on the content and recognizing that God knows what form is best for me, I have been able to embrace opportunities I would have never noticed before. I have also experienced a renewed appreciation for things already in my life. An instantaneous miracle occurs when I suddenly see and embrace what is in my life right now.
We may say that we believe in the power of love, a limitless God, an ever abundant Universe, and yet we limit our opportunities for fulfillment because we fixate on the form of how that fulfillment is supposed to look. No matter how perfect a particular form of your dreams may seem to you, consider the possibility that God holds even bigger dreams for you and knows exactly how to shape the form of that dream to bring you the most peace, joy & contentment.
Daily Meditation: Today I surrender all my desires to God, and open myself to His perfect gifts for me.
Copyright © 2008, Lisa Wagner
Friday, December 26, 2008
There is no order of difficulty in miracles
Continuing with A Course in Miracles ...
"There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not 'harder' or 'bigger; than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal."
Accepting this first Principle of Miracles from page one of the course is crucial to living a miraculous life. Is it possible that some miracles are harder for God than others? This may sound like a ridiculous question, but it is an important one to answer if we want peace and joy to flow freely through out lives.
Every time we don't take something to God, we are limiting His power in our lives. When we do not pray because we believe that something is not important enough to pray about or because we feel hopeless, we don't give God a chance. When we choose not to pray because the issue is "big" and we're afraid we may not like God's answer, we are insisting that we know more than God does. It is our beliefs and fears that limit miracles.
As long as we are willing to stay stuck in seeing God as simply the granter of wishes, rather than the unlimited power of love that He is, we will continue to believe some miracles are more difficult than others. They aren't. Living a miraculous life is not about asking God to intervene in our lives to make specific things happen, it's about inviting God in to every part of our lives and being willing to see things differently. Experiencing miracles happens when we surrender our attachments to the way we believe things should be, and become willing to see things as God would have us see them. It's not about deciding if something is too big or small for God to help. It's about asking for God's help all of the time, and choosing to align ourselves with His presence in our lives every day.
The course teaches us not to focus on how possible or impossible something may seem to be in this world. Rather, we are taught that when we align ourselves with God, everything is possible. Pain that you thought would never go away can be released. Relationships that you thought could never change can be transformed. We get stuck thinking that a miracle is like getting what we want for Christmas, rather than seeing love where we thought it could not exist.
Call to mind your most limiting and damaging belief about yourself. Now, suppose God was able to heal this place inside of you, would you let Him? Which is more likely, that He hasn't known how to heal you or that you haven't been willing to believe that He can?
Daily Meditation: Today I will ask God to guide me in every moment, and I will allow miracles to flow freely in my life. With God, all things are possible.
Copyright © 2008, Lisa Wagner
"There is no order of difficulty in miracles. One is not 'harder' or 'bigger; than another. They are all the same. All expressions of love are maximal."
Accepting this first Principle of Miracles from page one of the course is crucial to living a miraculous life. Is it possible that some miracles are harder for God than others? This may sound like a ridiculous question, but it is an important one to answer if we want peace and joy to flow freely through out lives.
Every time we don't take something to God, we are limiting His power in our lives. When we do not pray because we believe that something is not important enough to pray about or because we feel hopeless, we don't give God a chance. When we choose not to pray because the issue is "big" and we're afraid we may not like God's answer, we are insisting that we know more than God does. It is our beliefs and fears that limit miracles.
As long as we are willing to stay stuck in seeing God as simply the granter of wishes, rather than the unlimited power of love that He is, we will continue to believe some miracles are more difficult than others. They aren't. Living a miraculous life is not about asking God to intervene in our lives to make specific things happen, it's about inviting God in to every part of our lives and being willing to see things differently. Experiencing miracles happens when we surrender our attachments to the way we believe things should be, and become willing to see things as God would have us see them. It's not about deciding if something is too big or small for God to help. It's about asking for God's help all of the time, and choosing to align ourselves with His presence in our lives every day.
The course teaches us not to focus on how possible or impossible something may seem to be in this world. Rather, we are taught that when we align ourselves with God, everything is possible. Pain that you thought would never go away can be released. Relationships that you thought could never change can be transformed. We get stuck thinking that a miracle is like getting what we want for Christmas, rather than seeing love where we thought it could not exist.
Call to mind your most limiting and damaging belief about yourself. Now, suppose God was able to heal this place inside of you, would you let Him? Which is more likely, that He hasn't known how to heal you or that you haven't been willing to believe that He can?
Daily Meditation: Today I will ask God to guide me in every moment, and I will allow miracles to flow freely in my life. With God, all things are possible.
Copyright © 2008, Lisa Wagner
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