Archives for July 2013

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“Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.” ― Dalai Lama XIV

Happy Wednesday! (Thursday if you live down under)!

What a wild month we have spent awakening our hearts and our truth! Our community is bursting – growing by leaps and bounds. We have members from more than 100 countries from five continents. We are this beautiful collective of personal expressions of the divine universe. And when we can flow that divinity that comes into us with each breath from the universe…we get to flow it back out into the world with every word, thought, and action. Imagine! We are the individual expression of the divine breath of the universe.

We’ve spent this month awakening our most divine Self through cultivating the practices of acceptance, forgiveness, gratitude, and compassion. And, where attention goes…energy flows. This doesn’t mean we are saintly or godly or enlightened. It simply means we are aware. Aware of the thoughts we think, the words we speak, and the actions we take. This doesn’t make us better than anyone else – but it makes us better than we were ten minutes ago. It makes us understand where our strengths and weaknesses fall. It gives us permission to accept, forgive, have gratitude, and flow compassion on a more consistent basis. Today on LIVE! from the SweetSpot, we’ll go deeper into the process of integrating these divine traits into our Being. In the meantime, here are five easy steps to effortlessly live our divinity.

First, a quick review.

Acceptance. The state of being open and receptive at the intellectual and heart level so that whatever arises is welcomed and appreciated. Acceptance is truly welcoming something into your being as a friend would invite another friend into his heart, with arms wide open– owning every moment of the experience. Accepting is different from tolerating, which is more like allowing something to enter your space rather than inviting it in. Do you see the subtle difference?

Forgiveness. When we forgive, we free ourselves from the ties that bind us to the one that hurt us. Yet, how can we forgive others if are not willing to forgive ourselves first? How can we open our hearts to others if they are closed off to ourselves? We must open ourselves to self-forgiveness, so we can then forgive others. If we can’t forgive ourselves, can we really authentically forgive others? If we do not believe we are worthy, how in the world could someone else be worthy?

Gratitude. Starting each morning with gratitude ensures that we move through the day with grace and ease. And that’s the space that I choose to live my life from. I am not always so graceful or so easy, but my morning gratitude practice starts me off on a sweet, forgiving, compassionate, grateful path. And when I find myself in grievance mode…gratitude brings me back to the present moment. And then it’s up to me to stay on course or find my way back when I’ve strayed throughout the day.

Compassion. True compassion is the ability to be sympathetic, empathetic, as well as having the desire to alleviate another’s pain and suffering. Beyond living life at the level of “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you”, compassion looks to heal others even in instances when you would not heal yourself. There are many people we like, even love, yet the depth of our compassion for them is shallow. Perhaps fear, jealousy, resentment, guilt, or anger colour our perspective and each carries with it a certain attachment that prevents true compassion. True compassion is independent of attachment. Imagine if our compassion could transcend our relationships and the attachment we have to them – pure sympathy, pure empathy, and pure desire to help others heal.

Listen LIVE today  as we discuss LIVING OUR DIVINITY hayhouseradio.com 3p PST/6p EST
Listen LIVE today
as we discuss
LIVING OUR DIVINITY
hayhouseradio.com
3p PST/6p EST

How do we activate these divine qualities? Here are five easy steps:

1) Upon waking – as you open your eyes, ask, “How can I be more accepting today? How can I be more forgiving today? How can I have more gratitude today? How can I be more compassionate today?” Spend one minute on each question and let the answers flow.

2) When you hang up the phone or hit send on an email or text – throughout the day, as you end an interaction, ask, “How could I have been more accepting? How could I have been more forgiving? How could I have been more gratitude? How could I have been more compassionate?” Just sit for a minute and see what pops up.

3) At around noon or lunch – at the mid-point of your day, take five minutes and ask, “How could I have been more accepting this morning? How could I have been more forgiving this morning? How could I have been more grateful this morning? How could I have been more compassionate this morning?” Just let the answers flow. You’ll be amazed what unfolds.

4) At the end of the day – on your commute home – assuming you work outside of your home…and if you do spend your day at home, get up and take a five-minute walk. The key is to physically separate yourself from the space you spent most of the day, and then ask, “How could I have been more accepting today? How could I have been more forgiving today? How could I have been more grateful today? How could I have been more compassionate today?” Just let the answers flow. You’ll be amazed what unfolds.

5) Right before bed as you lay your head on the pillow – this is when we get to reflect on who we have been for the past 12-18 hours. Gently repeat the following affirmations: I accept. I forgive. I am grateful. I am compassionate. Like a set of sutras, silently repeat the four affirmations over and over until you fall asleep. Sometimes I wake up repeating them right where I left off!!!

This powerful set of tools provides me with an evolving foundation for reflection, growth, and deeper understanding of myself and of those around me. By implementing these daily rituals throughout the 18 hours you are awake each day, you will learn to make more conscious, nourishing choices in your life and you will progressively awaken the divine within!! Keep it real and keep meditating!! I’ll see you in the gap. Peace. -davidji

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“The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common.”
— RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Dear Spiritual Warriors:

Let’s awaken our most divine aspect by cultivating an attitude of gratitude. That’s right! We can shift every aspect of our existence by simply giving birth and placing some attention on our ability to be grateful.

How does it work? Well for the past seven years, I have started each morning with a few minutes of gratitude. It happens the moment I wake up – BEFORE I even open my eyes!! As I slowly become conscious or aware that I am no longer sleeping, I silently ask myself, “What am I grateful for?”

I don’t answer. I just repeat that question over and over like a mantra. After I have silently asked about 50 times, about one minute has passed. And then I sit for a minute and just fill my mind and my heart with everything I am grateful for. People, animals, experiences, opportunities, the miracles that unfold each day – both profound and mundane, the sunset, the sweet light of the moon, someone being patient with me (more patient than I had been with someone else), my food taking an hour to be prepared so I could reflect on hunger and those less fortunate than I, the stubbing of my toe to make me remember the power of paying attention, and they just keep pouring into my awareness. I commit to only a few minutes before my eyes open before I drink in the morning.

Over and over, I ask, “What am I grateful for?” And when I realize that I’ve drifted away from the process, I drift my attention back to the question, “What am I grateful for?”

Then I open my eyes, RPM (rise, pee, meditate), and I have ten minutes of gratitude rippling through me before I’ve even brushed my teeth!!

Join me LIVE every Wednesday  3p PST/6p EST on hayhouseradio.com Radio for your SOUL!
Join me LIVE
every Wednesday
3p PST/6p EST
on hayhouseradio.com
Radio for your SOUL!

Why would I do this ritual more than 2000 mornings in a row? Because, where attention goes, energy flows. Because whatever we place our awareness on blooms and blossoms and grows…and what we drift our awareness away from withers, diminishes and dies.

And by placing my awareness on gratitude before I have even absorbed one ray of sunlight, gratitude becomes the trajectory of my morning, my day, and my week! Every seed I plant throughout the day is planted in the fertile soil of gratitude. Some of the greatest heart-based teachers such as Osho, David Simon, and Pema Chodron have stressed that enlightenment cannot be achieved by meditation alone. If our heart is heavy, that heaviness will stand in the way of bliss. If our heart is heavy, then our meditation will be more of an intellectual exercise and we want to move out of our head and into our heart.

Starting our day with gratitude ensures that we move through the day with grace and ease. And that’s the space that I choose to live my life from. I am not always so graceful or so easy, but my morning gratitude practice starts me off on a sweet, forgiving, compassionate, grateful path. It’s up to me to stay on it or find my way back when I’ve strayed throughout the day.

What a magnificent journey to be on! I invite you to join me every morning as we start the day in gratitude. It doesn’t guarantee that the day will unfold perfectly or as predicted, but it does guarantee that as each moment unfurls its miracle, I am right there – only a few heartbeats away starting from a space of gratitude. Join me on Hay House Radio today and we’ll go deeper into Awakening the Divine – and cultivating an attitude of gratitude.
Peace. -davidji

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“The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.”
-Marianne Williamson

Each morning, right before I meditate I go through a detailed heart-opening ritual that includes asking myself a few questions. I call this ritual The Secrets of the SweetSpot and an important part of the process is asking:

How can I be more accepting? More self-accepting.
How can I be more compassionate? More self-compassionate.
How can I be more forgiving? More self-forgiving.
How can I heal this heart?

We are in constant dynamic exchange with the world around us, which means our actions simultaneously touch the lives of those around us and have deeper consequences on what we feel, what we think about, and what we do.

We all have made mistakes, chosen non-nourishing choices, and allowed our words & actions to hurt others – and perhaps the most unintended consequence is that we’ve created pain within and around us. We’ve pointed fingers, compared ourselves to someone else, relished in Schadenfreude (rooting for someone or something to fail), pushed people away (even when we were trying to get them to come closer), gossiped, cut off our nose to spite our face, and refused to give in so we could say “I told you so!”

And then there are all the grievances, grudges, resentments, comparisons, envies, and gripes. They serve no one – they fester inside – they distract our mind from feeling bliss and our heart from loving. They sour into bitterness, self-righteousness, cynicism, and arrogance. And in time, these self-inflicted feelings of discomfort morph into dis-ease in our physical body and in our mind. And then ultimately, they turn into disease.

When we forgive, we free ourselves from the tie that binds us to the one who hurt us. We become LIBERATED. Saying it, posting it on Facebook, or having an intellectual conversation with yourself does not release you from your self-imposed captivity.

Only forgiveness can help bathe away the negativity. Only forgiveness can release you from the prison of attachment and anger. Only forgiveness will bring you inner peace.

And how can we forgive others if are not willing to forgive ourselves first? How can we open our hearts to others if they are closed off to ourselves? We must open ourselves to self-compassion so that we can then be compassionate to others. If we can’t forgive ourselves, can we really authentically forgive others? If we do not believe we are worthy, how in the world could someone else be worthy?

We are all just doing our best from our own level of consciousness at the time. And if we are willing to truly make a commitment to chose another response or a more nourishing behavior the next time, then we all deserve a little forgiveness.

RIGHT NOW. Today. In this breath. You are entitled to happiness.

I’m reminded of the instructive quote by classic movie icon Marlene Dietrich: “Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast.”

How hard is it to not re-serve our sins to ourselves over and over? This week, let’s make the commitment to awaken our most divine self by practicing self-forgiveness and then allowing that radiance of forgiveness to shine onto others.

Share this with everyone you know and watch the ripple of forgiveness heal your world. And join me on HayHouseRadio and we will transform the world by transforming ourselves. In the meantime, I’ll see you in the gap! Peace. -davidji

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Listen to davidji today as he discusses FORGIVENESS on hayhouseradio.com Wednesdays  3p PST/6p EST
Listen to davidji today as he discusses FORGIVENESS
on hayhouseradio.com
Wednesdays
3p PST/6p EST

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“If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?” -Rumi

This week we have been exploring the concept and the practice of acceptance. One of the most difficult things to do is accept or allow that which we have resisted. I have often described the personality of peaches – the Buddha princess – as “she resists nothing and therefore she receives unconditional love.”

There are several easy ways that allow us to resist less and accept more. Taking a deep breath can make the process of accepting flow more easily in the moment. Spending time in stillness and silence offers us the opportunity to awaken patience, become more peaceful, and experience unity consciousness.

Opening our heart allows us to love ourselves a bit more, love others unconditionally, and accept the love of others that we may have resisted in the past. Let’s also not forget that acceptance is one of the four emotional needs of the heart; attention, affection, appreciation, and ACCEPTANCE. If you are experiencing times of challenge, these four needs are a wonderful navigational “check-list” to self-awareness and healing.

If you are looking to expand and evolve, this weekend’s meditation will help you on your journey. Keep meditating and you will awaken the divine acceptance within you so that you will live your life with greater grace and ease. See you in the gap. Peace. -davidji

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Join me in Tulum, Mexico
and explore the 5 Realms!
November 16-23
Click image for more info!

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“Acceptance of one’s life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle. On the contrary it means accepting it as it comes… To accept is to say yes to life in its entirety.” -Paul Tournier

Hello Spiritual Warriors – ready to awaken your divine gift of acceptance?

Acceptance is a beautiful teaching with many different levels. It is the root and the foundation of many wisdom traditions including Buddhist compassion teachings, the Law of Least Effort, and Christ Consciousness. But regardless of your orientation to these belief systems, we can always find personal evolution and divine awakening in accepting ….

1) ACCEPTING that this moment is perfect, pure, whole, and every moment that has led to this moment was exactly the way it was meant to be. Imagine…this moment is the magnificent culmination of all of your choices; every experience that has woven itself in, around, and through you; and every one of the 31 million seconds that have ticked by in just this year alone! It couldn’t be any other way!!

2) ACCEPTING that you are a divine being who is sealed in this human body for the span of a lifetime and that you have made choices and decisions throughout your life from your highest level of consciousness at the time. Even though there are choices you may regret or torture yourself about, they are carved in stone and we must accept them, forgive ourselves, and make better choices in the future.

3) ACCEPTING others for what they are – not as we wish they would be. Allowing people’s differences, quirks, unique vibrations to just be and not necessarily fit into our box of how the world is supposed to be. Allowing others to be as they are. Understanding these three levels of acceptance could keep us busy for several lifetimes. I began the discussion of level one in this week’s video. Feel free to integrate it into your life and recognize that wherever you are, every moment of the past is carved in stone and for us to evolve our lives or improve our situation or find deeper fulfillment we must own the moment. Level two is where so many of us get stuck. We are our toughest critic and we know all the moments where we felt less than, or were sloppy, lazy, or casual with our decisions. We know when we were unsure of which road to take and we guessed “wrong”. We know where we could have been better, or stronger, or wiser, or more patient, or more truthful, or more engaged. But in that moment, we didn’t know it…we didn’t have access to a crystal ball of consequences; or maybe we didn’t take the time to really explore the depth of our actions or choices.

So we have two very clear choices:

1) beat ourselves up for not being clairvoyant and diminish the happiness in our lives by pointing a continuous finger of blame at ourselves OR

2) accept the past as a lesson so that we can make better choices and find deeper fulfillment in life. So often, we hold ourselves accountable for all the pitfalls and unhappiness in our lives and we point to some decision we made that was the root of it all. But this is unnecessary and harsh. And building up the blame case has no value except in a courtroom. In the real world, where a judge or jury of our choices doesn’t exist, attributing blame only gets in the way of making the best decision in this moment – especially self-blame because that is also self-defeating.

It takes the wind out of our sails and that doesn’t help us in any way. In business, in history, in politics, in sports…where the stakes are so high, the ability to step beyond the moment of blame and accept our individual mis-steps, mis-stakes, mis-speaks separates the winners from the losers. The ability to accept that we did our best from our own level of consciousness at the time, separates those willing to step out of the past (which is the stale, the old, the stuck) and into the present (which is rich, fresh, and filled with infinite opportunities).

Those mired in self-pity or finger-pointing are trapped in the past and destined to stay there because they will not accept what is carved in stone. They remain paralyzed in self-finger-pointing mode and that becomes their excuse for why they are unfulfilled; while those who have owned and accepted their decisions are able to move forward and make new, proud, exciting, restorative choices. We can keep complaining about the rain or accept that it’s raining, find an umbrella, and dance in the cleansing fall. We get to choose. We are choice-making beings. No one can ever take that away from us – not even ourselves. We just need a little reminder now and then. I wish you many conscious choices this week. See you in the gap!! Peace. –davidji

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