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Hi 
 
Happy New Year!
 
A New Look At A Course In Miracles

The counseling course I am taking right now is  founded on the
principles of A Course in Miracles. I have not always been
particularly attracted to this book as the language is dense but as
I work more with my own ego, I realize the profound truths of this
book.
 
It is helpful to recognize that our ego is our shadow self - our
egos - simply put - are our mistrust in the divine "rightness" of
life. Our shadows work against us constantly. To the degree you
allow your ego voices to run your life is the degree that you are
working against yourself.
 
This year on New Years Day I am going to subscribe to the 365
Lessons in A Course in Miracles. You can also do so here :
http://www.circleofa.org/interaction/e-pub.php 

What this offers is an opportunity to change your "endarkened"
protective, ego perceptions into seeing this life as the divine
playground that it is.
 
It takes effort to change our perceptions...to see the divine in
everything. This requires a higher will and a willingness to stop
indulging in unnecessary darkness.

Darkness will arise to be cleansed, felt and healed...this is our
journey as humans...but on the path to the light there are certain
negative habits of mind that can be quickly and accurately seen and
dispensed of.
 
It is interesting...I have been noticing something these days. I
notice that as I stand up to my own ego
victimization/negative/anger/guilt patterns in myself, I no longer
believe in them or indulge in them in others. I no longer see these
patterns as real or as contributing in any way to life. I see a
better way. As A Course in Miracles would call it, much of our
negative ego indulgence is "voluntary dispiriting."
 
The Yes and No of the Mind

I have long been enamored by this collage above. I created it
several years ago but I return to it again and again because there
is a such a human dilemma that lives within it. The no arises from
self-protection, separation and ego. Negativity can feel like a
stronghold...negative habits of mind can take me over in an
instant....it is the quickest neuro-pathway to go the negative ego
route...this is our heavily conditioned...repetitive mind. In
counseling class we call it the "super highway."

It is the joy that comes over me that I find difficult to sustain.
When I feel too good I watch myself trying to tamp down the
energy...if the joy goes on too long...I find myself turning to
familiar feelings and thoughts. My spiritual practice these days
seems to be about invoking joy and seeing how long I can sustain it
before the next layer comes up to be healed.

Creating Our Own Heaven or Hell

"We are making hour by hour, our own heaven or our own hell." 
-Ralph Waldo Trine

Did you know that the word heaven means harmony? The word hell
comes from old English and it means to build a wall around, to
separate, to be helled means to shut off from. To be in right
relation with anything is to be in harmony with it...to say yes.

This does not mean we have no boundaries and indulge abusive or
disrespectful behavior. We can say a loving, authentic no to
people's egos if they are destructive or unkind. There is a kind of
yes and no that says, "I am saying yes to what is higher in you but
no...I will not engage in your ego manipulations." This is true
love, this is a discerning yes.

These days it is the yes and the doors that open to yes that feels
like the most mysterious and wondrous path to me. No longer do I
want to be bound by darkness. Healing the shadows fiercely and
quickly seems the order of the day...moving through the no's...and
saying yes to more and more of life....for the New Year

Love to You,
 
Shelley

 
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Featured Book
A Course in Miracles
 
When you are sad, know that this need not be. Depression comes from
a sense of being deprived of something you want and do not have.
 
Remember you are deprived of nothing except by your own decisions,
and then decide otherwise.
 
When you are anxious, realize that anxiety comes from the
capriciousness of the ego and know, this need not be.
 
You can be as vigilant against the ego's dictates as for them. When
you give up this voluntary dispiriting, you will see how your mind
can focus and rise above fatigue and heal.
 
The habit of engaging with God and his creations is easily made if
you actively refuse to let your mind slip away.
 
The principle is not one of concentration, it is the belief that no
one, including yourself is worth consistent effort.
 
The disheartened are useless but only the ego can be disheartened. 
 
Have you really considered how many opportunities you have had to
gladden yourself and how many of them you have refused?