PERSPECTIVES: "Acceptance and Solving Problems"___1390
Posted by ~Å~ on November 01, 2009 at 08:03:15:
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ACCEPTANCE AND SOLVING PROBLEMS (excerpt)
--Michael channeled by Shepherd Hoodwin, from the upcoming book
"Opening to Healing Energy"
(My upcoming books have been upcoming for a long time 
. I don't have
a publication date.--SGH)
Q. It's one thing to say, "I am perfect as I am. I love myself." It's
another to feel it. How do you get the feeling?
A. The thought usually comes first. Without it, you are not likely to
have the feeling. Then you can bring your other thoughts in line with
it. Suppose that you repeat the affirmation, "I am perfect as I am."
Then five minutes later, you stub your toe and say, "I'm a stupid
idiot for stubbing my toe." Your second affirmation is obviously in
conflict with the first, and neutralizes it. As you bring all your
thoughts in line with the positive affirmation, you can imprint it
into your consciousness. This takes being awake and noticing your
thoughts. For example, if you hear yourself calling yourself stupid,
you can remind yourself that it is all right to stub your toe
sometimes, and that you are perfect as you are. As you act toward
yourself in a conscious, loving way, you become more aware of emotions
not in agreement with your new thoughts, such as feelings of
inadequacy, of not being lovable, and so forth, and you can begin to
release them. New feelings of being worthy of love take hold.
Incidentally, positive feelings are already present in everyone. There
is a part of you that already knows that you are perfect as you are
and that you are worthy of love. If your whole self agreed that you
are imperfect and not worthy of love, there would be no inner
conflict, and therefore no impetus in you to change that belief; it
would be an open-and-shut case. You would deem your unworthiness an
absolute truth and would have no motivation to change your thoughts
and feelings. The purpose of spiritual work is not to impose something
new and foreign on yourself; it is simply to acknowledge the truth you
already know in some part of yourself and allow it to expand. You
might say that it is a seedling being choked by weeds; you are pulling
out the weeds from around it so that it can grow into a beautiful plant.
A good way to reach nonjudgmental neutrality about yourself is to list
facts about yourself. For example: "I sometimes interrupt people."
"I'm very good at shopping." "I am angry at my mother." "I like
watching reruns of 'I Love Lucy.'" "I wear size 8 shoes." And so
forth. Loving yourself does not imply that you ignore the facts about
yourself. However, when you love yourself, you are not making those
facts wrong, although you may choose to change them if they can be
changed. You certainly cannot change them if you do not know about
them. In self-judgment, you try to change them because you think that
you are a bad person and that you will become a good person if you
change them. When you love yourself, you change them simply because
doing so seems like the best choice.
You probably will not have much success changing your shoe size, but
you can practice not interrupting others if you wish. You might find
that not interrupting others makes your conversations more pleasant
and helps you feel more peaceful. That is a good reason to change this
habit.
However you feel is perfect as it is. You may feel happy; you may feel
sad. You may feel sick; you may feel healthy. There is no right way to
be a human being. By accepting the way something is for you at the
moment, you are not necessarily putting much emphasis on it. If your
body is sick, your acceptance of that fact does not glorify it—it is
not making it more important than it is. It may be very important; it
may not be. If you are neutral about it, you can see how important it
really is and how much of your attention it requires. If you give
unnecessary attention to a particular fact, you are taking energy away
from other facts that might also benefit from your attention.
If you are not feeling very accepting, accept that you are not feeling
accepting--you have to start where you are. If you are feeling
unaccepting and then remember that you are "supposed" to be accepting,
putting yourself down for not being accepting is missing the point.
Whatever you experience is acceptable.
If you create karma by violating another person, you will pay the
price for that. Of course, it is more pleasant if you do not create
karma, but if you do, that, too, is acceptable--that is one way you
learn on the physical plane. Virtually no one passes through the
physical plane without creating and repaying karmas. Virtually no one
passes through a single day without making mistakes, miscalculations,
or whatever. Again, that is part of how you learn. That is acceptable.
You are completely acceptable, exactly the way you are.
CHANNELED MICHAEL CHAT SUNDAY
Every other month, on the first Sunday (unless there's a holiday, in
which case it's the second), I do a live Michael channeling (or,
occasionally, a class) at BlogTalkRadio. The next chat is this Sunday,
November 1, at 6-8 p.m. Pacific/9-11 p.m. Eastern. (We return to
Standard Time the night before, so be sure to set your clocks back.)
Here is where you go to listen live:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MichaelTeachings
You can call in at the number on the page for questions.
Simultaneously, there will be an optional written chat room for
questions, commentary, and socializing before and after, at:
http://www.michaelteachings.com/m-chat.html
Please test these links and your ability to see and hear the chat
ahead of time. If you're having trouble logging on to the chat,
consider getting dedicated IRC software.
Sometimes, Michael takes a few questions, both general interest and
personal. For personal questions, send me jpgs of yourself and others
you wish to ask about (unless I already have them), with copies going
to michaelteachings@gmail.com, at least an hour before the chat
begins. Moderator Dave Gregg will make a list in the chat room of
those who wish to ask questions ten minutes before we start. BlogTalk
Radio requires us to start and end precisely on time. Phone BlogTalk
when the questioner on the list before you is asking his question and
wait to be asked to speak. If you are not able to phone in, ask Dave
in the written chat to pose your question for you. If it's a toll call
for you, consider a free or low-cost internet phone service such as
Skype. When asking personal questions, identify yourself and others
with full names; they will be edited out of transcripts but not from
the audio.
All my online recordings, transcripts, and written chats of Michael
channelings and workshops are at:
http://www.michaelteachings.com/shepherd-hoodwin.html
If you can't listen live Sunday, the recording and perhaps a
transcript will be available there afterward. This link is also in the
signature of my emails.
***
All my email addresses that end in @cox.net have been discontinued.
This one, sgh@summerjoy.com will continue to be good. See my signature
below for an alternative, in the rare case that summerjoy.com is down.
Also below is my blog, which contains edited versions of my posts
(including humor pieces) on the Michael teachings list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MichaelTeachings
).
I have three other email lists. FORWARDS (non-political insightful
news items), POLITICAL, and PHOTOS. Let me know if you'd like to be on
(or off) any of these. Please make sure my address is in your address
book or on your "white list" so the mail isn't rejected.
All the best,
Shepherd
---
sgh@summerjoy.com
http://summerjoy.com
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