connecting to a higher power...........

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clean42day:

¿God Who?
Dina Bachelor Evan, Ph.D.
"God told me to go into that store, buy this crystal or marry this man" are phrases we can hear about most any activity these days. How does God tell someone what to do, or better yet, how does one set up a direct line to God? Human beings get defensive about the proper way to connect with God, and what we even perceive God to be. It's a big subject about a big Energy. What if everyone is right? I happen to think it's is true that everyone is right. There are, however, some questions that I can address, from personal experience, which might facilitate the process of connecting to God. First of all stop editing, discounting and insisting God communicate with you in a certain preconceived, acceptable way. God speaks in a multitude of ways. Remember the old joke about the guy in a flood who refused to allow anyone to help him off the roof of his house because he was waiting for God to do it. After he died, he asked God why he had not intervened and God's response was, "Who do you think sent the fireman, the policeman and that neighbor with a tow boat?" Let Divine energy work in your life however it needs to, and stop being controlling about how it manifests. Secondly, understand that we each perceive energy in different ways. Some of us are visual, some auditory, some kinesthetic (best able to feel things) - all of these ways of getting connected to universal energy are right. That means you must be open to cosmic serendipity, coincidence and signs. You need to wake up to the world around you and begin to understand that there are no closed systems of energy and everything is working to guide and direct you. Third, it is much harder to feel fully connected to God when you are exhausted, emotionally or physically, agitated, anxious, sexually aroused (except sometimes at the moment of orgasm), or fearful. We often feel the least connected at these times simply because we are experiencing a great deal of physical and brain activity and have less energy for spiritual connection. Therefore, it's a good idea to spend time just connecting when you are not experiencing these stresses. Form a relationship with God that is a friendship, even if you perceive God to be only Energy, move out of seeing it just a resource when you are in trouble. Take a moment before you go into work or a meeting, to just close your eyes and sit quietly and let yourself feel connected. Using a mantra, or chanting the same word over and over, such as "peace" will help quiet your mind. Setting up a place in your home that feels peaceful in which you can meditate or get still is helpful. God can be found in stillness and silence. Establishing a routine or practice during which you set your intention or thoughts on the experience of this Energy is helpful. Ask for or affirm your receptivity to that energy. At first your experiences may not be profound. They may consist of a simple state of peacefulness or calm. We need to give our spiritual selves consistent time and space, free from the business of life in order to feel continuously connected to Spirit. Remember to go inside yourself and just breathe, not out to some illusive place in the ethers called heaven. God is right where you are. Gently, if you persist in creating these moments, they will move you toward deeper states of grace and connection. If seeking God is uncomfortable, seek instead, truth, grace, compassion, forgiveness or allowance. All of these will bring you closer to what you are seeking. Self-judgment will lessen your experience of God quicker than anything else. Whenever you judge yourself and act out of a lack of compassion for yourself, you almost immediately sever your experience of Divine energy. Dan Millman, Ram Dass and most other spiritual teachers will tell you that the only thing that prevents us from experiencing God fully, are our own limitations to allowing it. We are made up, as humans, of both light and shadow. Neither is bad or good, and all is for teaching us to be spirit. Your judgment inevitably prevents you from being aware of your connection to Spirit. In addition, find an outlet for your love and spirituality. Too many of us are still spiritually in the closet. The energy of love is cyclical. The more that goes out, the more that comes in, because that completes the circuitry. The truth is that there are as many roads to God as there are people and, they are all correct. It doesn't matter much how you choose to seek the experience of Divine energy, it only matters that you make a dedicated choice to seek it. You build the connection and God will come.