Tag: inner peace

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You are Loved!

On By SallyIn A Course In Miracles, forgiveness, Guilt, Uncategorized1 Comment

You are loved beyond the moon and the stars. You are held, comforted, surrounded by loving arms and have been and will always be. You are accepted just the way you are because you are perfect. No harm can ever come to you because all things are lessons you have come to learn…..and to forgive. Forgiveness offers everything you want. Forgiveness is to KNOW that you did the best you can.

When you are tempted to feel guilty about something you think you could have done, should have done or did or did not do or to hold a grievance – THAT is a PRESENT DECISION, you have made, TO HOLD ONTO IT. It is a decision, a way of justifing why you do not feel peace and LOVE right now. It is a way of saying “I’m not worthy, my mistake(s) are terrible and not to be forgiven.” You are holding on to the PAST IN THE PRESENT. You are making yourself miserable! This need not be!

That decision is a faulty decision and one you want to change.

No one is a perfect: mother, father, daughter, brother, sister, son, cousin, friend, colleague or neighbor…..freeway driver or annonymous individual you meet on the street or anywhere you go.

Say: “I can still be at peace even though I am not a perfect. No body is. Bodies are not perfect! The Mind Is! I forgive myself for my mistake(s) rather than looking at imperefection or listening to the ego lies. I now have the power to drop the painful memories and mistakes and I choose now to LET THEM GO AND REST IN THE LOVE THAT IS ALWAYS AND FOREVER MINE.”

You are a beautiful MIND. You share that MIND with the LOVE of the Universe! Spirit and Mind is your identiy and far above and beyond the ego. We cannot undo the past and we cannot ensure a happy future but we can do something about our choice to hold on to memories and grievances. Choose NOW TO LET THEM GO and be FREE. That is where your happiness lies.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Author: ‘The Gift of the Great Rays, Inner Peace Essays and A Course In Miracles and its Promise of Freedom.’ Available on Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

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Valentine’s Day: Love yourself

On By SallyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Mt. Shasta’s Heart, photograph. Sally McKirgan.

Learn to Love Yourself – A Valentine’s Day Gift For You

Do you feel loved?  Do you feel un-loved?

Feel love by connecting to the unconditional, non-judgmental love that is within.  Choose to go there!

The truth is; you are loved, loving and lovable.  It may feel hard to accept that reality but why not try?  Close your eyes and repeat to yourself:

“I am Loved, I am lovable and I am love.”  Repeat this statement to yourself.  Place your hands on your upper arms and hug yourself.  Keep telling yourself that you ARE loved, Lovable and Loving.  Continue to hug and stroke and affirm the love within.

If there is anyone in your mind that you hold a grievance about, extend love to them.  Why not?  You do yourself a favor because when you extend love, you also have love by holding it in your mind. 

Accept your reality as a loving radiant light and extend it out to ALL. That includes your family, friends, colleagues, the U.S. Congress and Senate and the world.

Write the following down and place it where you can see it several times a day:

I am the light of the world.

I am spirit, loved and loving.

Being love I extend it to all.

Our nation is going through turmoil right now.  The truth is, there is always turmoil but when we give someone a smile; a wave of the hand or offer to hold a door open, we are giving love. And as we give, we receive the same inner appreciation in our mind and heart.

When we remember to be kind and loving, our journey is peaceful and joyful.  Love is eternal, formless and never ending so it cannot run out. You cannot run out of love.  You can give away all you want and it is never gone. It is like the bottle of sherry in a Christmas movie I saw once:  it fills up as soon as it is emptied and it never inebriates.

A daily reminder of the love within, will set the belief in your mind. The ego part of your mind will not believe it, but that does not mean that it’s not true. In fact, your ego mind will tell you the opposite and deny the reality of what you are.

You have the power to change your beliefs and thoughts. We all have made mistakes, and have regrets from the past but has remembering or beating yourself up made you happier? When you are in a hole, stop digging.

Forgiveness is remembering you are spirit living in a human body in a classroom called the world.

The Course In Miracles tells us God is love. You do not have to believe in God, just believe in love. Whenever you have a loving thought, you are an extension of love and you are the creator of your life and your world.

You are the light of the world.  When you give love you are holding it in your mind, so it is therefore also yours. Exclude no one from your love — including yourself.

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Ego Mode = The Virus Blame Game

On By SallyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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After listening to a wonderful youtube presentation by Tim Wise and Lyn Corona, see the link below, I realize how addicting the ego voice is.  We are in “ego mode” when we MUST find something or someone to blame.  But the source of inner pain or even bodily pain is from…..listening to the ego…believing this faulty thinking and that I am right in choosing the ego mode.

Right now we have the coronavirus circling the world.  Who are we going to blame? Some foreign people, the military, all the Politian’s?  It is the ego part of our mind doing the blaming and we believe it because we want to!  We need to blame and project onto someone so we can feel better.

The ego is attracted to pain because it means the body is REAL, the world is REAL and we are important.  It keeps us trapped in the dream of being a body in the illusion.  We are a puppet of the ego when that happens.

When we decide we are tired of this blame game because of the pain it causes, we look within and see, according to the Course that our only problem is the separation we feel from God.  That is impossible.  We cannot be separate from God because we are In God at this very moment, but we don’t think we are.

If we choose blame, we are continuing the separation from God because that is what we did to Him when we chose the ego.  Yes, the “tiny mad idea” in the Course tells us we chose the ego to be separate from God.  If we blame ourselves or feel guilty from separating from God we are still listening to the ego mode and in the blame game.

The solution: We take a deep breath, step aside from the ego in your mind, take the hand of Jesus – the Holy Spirit that connects us to God and say:  “I am as God Created Me, help me see this differently.”   See A Course In Miracles, Workbook Lesson 110.

We insist on finding a “bad guy” to blame because we don’t want to take responsibility for the decision to separate from God.  We do it every time we blame someone and make them the guilty one.  We do unto them, what we did unto God.

You are NOT separate from God because that is impossible.  But in this dream we “believe” we are.  To get out of the dream ask Jesus:

“I am stuck, take my hand, help me see the way you do.  Help me let go of this judgment and blame I place on ______ and let go of my projections, believing the ego’s lies.”

The tiny mad idea that we can be separate from God is just that…..a mad idea!  An idea is not real.  You are not a puppet.  You are a Mind, an innocent Son of God with the power in you to follow the loving kindness in your heart, holding the hand of Love and going home to Heaven where you really are and have always been.

Here is the YouTube video with Tim Wise, Lyn Corona and others from the School for A Course in Miracles, discussing the Corona Virus:

 

 

Here is the link to the A Course In Miracles – Workbook Lesson 110:   I am as God Created Me.  https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-110

More Miracles Organizations

http://www.miraclecenter.org

http://www.acim.org

http://www.facim.org

YOU ARE LOVE and YOU ARE LOVED

 

 

 

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Open Your Mind: Open Your Heart

On By SallyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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Does an open heart, open the mind or does an open mind, open the heart?

Maybe it doesn’t matter which one happens first, but for me, when I’m waiting in line at the market feeling anxious because the line is slow, my mind is locked, closed and my heart constricted. That is why having a practice in watching the mind helps because when aware of the “agitation” I can say “I want to see this differently” and with that I am open to the Souls who share the line with me and let go and relax. I can see the silliness in spending energy on something trivial like agitation. I want and choose peace, inner peace. The Course In Miracles tells us the goal of the Course is inner peace and the workbook lessons certainly help us look at the blocks we have put up to keep peace away, and as it turns out LOVE too. The ego is the culprit but it is ONLY a thought, we happen to believe.

Monitoring your thoughts and mind is the key: How do YOU feel? Are emotions in charge of you or are “YOU” in charge of your Mind and consequently the emotions. But we have to look at the emotions rather than indulge or believe them and when we look, which is part of the forgiveness instructions, in the What is Forgiveness link below, they dissipate like smoke on a windy day. We no longer live from our emotions or let them run our lives unless it serves us somehow.   There are those who like an emotional state of anxiety and fear because they think it keeps them motivated but it is not good for the health of the body, which we need in order to go through the lessons we came here to learn and it is also not good if inner peace is our goal.

We don’t have to believe our thoughts just because we think them. An example is my boss told me he’d like to see me in his office for a meeting the next day at 2 pm. I hadn’t a clue what it could be about but I can tell you thoughts ran rampant through my mind, and they were not all good thoughts. What could it be? Maybe I’d be fired or asked to resign! Well, it turned out I received a compliment and a promotion! All that energy spent in worry, fear of the future, fear of the past! Everything but: “Right Now, all is well.” Ahhhh…..right NOW….all is Well. This instant is the only time there IS! Everything else is my projecting into the future and the ego fear running amok.

As students of the Course we are told we are the Christ, a Holy Son of God and Jesus our elder brother will guide us, if we take his hand and invite him in. Share all your emotions and thoughts with your elder brother. He awaits your invitational prayer – this is one I use:

“Jesus Christ, Holy Son of God, Dear elder brother, please guide my heart and mind and help me look at and remove the blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is my natural inheritance, as I journey to the Home and Father, I never left.”

I try to repeat this whenever I am upset about something and especially when I can’t sleep at night because I’m ruminating about a worry; a meeting I dread; a bill to be paid; someone I need to forgive but don’t want to. Unlock your mind and look at all those thoughts with your elder brother; let him give you a thought to replace the ones you think are true…..and your Heart will Open.

Click on these links and click on the arrow, “play” and have it read to you – close your eyes.

ACIM: Introduction https://acim.org/acim/what-it-says/

Workbook Lesson 185. W. pg. 348. I want the peace of God. https://acim.org/workbook/lesson-185/

What is Forgiveness –W. pg. 401 https://acim.org/workbook/what-is-1/

You are worth it because you are LOVED!

 

New Years Promise

On By SallyIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

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January 3, 2017!!

What a trickster time is!

“For what is time without a past and future?  It has taken time to misguide you so completely, but

it takes no time at all to be what you are. Begin to practice the Holy Spirit’s use of time as a

teaching aid to happiness and peace.  Take this very instant, now, and think of it as all there is of

time.  Nothing can reach you here out of the past, and it is here that you are completely absolved,

completely free and wholly without condemnation.  From this holy instant wherein holiness was

born again you will go forth in time without fear and with no sense of change with time.” 

The above quote is from A Course In Miracles, Chapter 15. The Holy Instant, Section I. The Two Uses of Time, p.9. 2-7.

The ego uses time to age us (we think we are bodies); heap regret and guilt; plant the seeds of self doubt and or grandiosity; keep us in fear of the future by reminding us of the dreaded past and we are suffocated by grievances we have promised never to overlook or forgive.

But, when we choose to use the Holy Spirit’s practice of accepting the holy instant as soon as we become upset and remember “God Is” present at this very moment – our mind is free.  Sometimes when I am aggravated, beyond words I repeat “God Is” quickly, about 10 to 20 times!  It shifts me from the ego to the Holy Spirit, from Hell to Heaven.  Does it last – no!  But gradually, little by little, I have Faith that I am ascending the ladder and One Day, One Fine Day,  I will reach True Perception and the Real World.

My New Year’s Resolution….. To use the Holy Instant and remember when upset, to STOP and take that very instant and think of it as being “Out of Time”- no past, no future, just God Is, God Is, God Is!  This is what the Course calls the Atonement: Remembering that the “seeming” separation from God is an illusion!  Not True!

Bless you in 2017 and for that matter – for eternity!

For more information about the Course check the following websites:

http://www.facim.org

http://www.acim.org

http://www.miraclecenter.org

http://www.circleofa.org

 

 

 

 

 

The Greatest Gift – the story

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The Greatest Gift

peace
The Holidays are nearly over – New Year’s Eve is yet to be celebrated. Did all the planning and preparation turn out as you liked? All those important details that took over our lives with untold distractions can now be filed away neatly like the Christmas cards

It was just such a busy Christmas in 1986 when I received the greatest gift of all. We never know when an experience will come that erases the doubt in our mind about who we are; is there a God; or why are we here and who cares. A revelation is not by its nature permanent, but it can be reflected upon and remembered when we are challenged or overcome by fear or even death. I have had several “mystical” experiences but the one that removed all doubt about the nature of reality happened on a cold, grey misty afternoon in San Francisco in 1986.

In April of that year I began to study the Workbook Lessons of the Spiritual Book, A Course In Miracles. The workbook offers one lesson per day for a one year study program. Students are encouraged to read them and practice them with the purpose of training the minds unconscious tendencies and un-do or see through the ego with the ultimate promise of attaining inner peace. I had been searching the elusive inner peace through various books and spiritual practices and none had worked. I promised myself I would read a lesson each day even if I did not fully understand it and not miss one. And I didn’t.

Mid December I was running errands, and if I remembered it, repeating the lesson. I have reflected on it over the years but believe I was on Lesson 245.
Your peace is with me, Father. I am safe.

“Your peace surrounds me Father. Where I go, Your peace goes there with me. It sheds its light on everyone I meet. I bring it to the desolate and lonely and afraid. I give Your peace to those who suffer pain, or grieve for loss, or think they are bereft of hope and happiness. Send them to me, my Father. Let me bring your peace with me. For I would love Your Son, as is Your Will, that I may come to recognize my Self.”

The Holiday decorations and bustling shoppers helped warm the afternoon fog. At O’Farrell Street, I noticed a group of homeless people had gathered in front of Macy’s and in particular a young woman with a baby. I thought, “That could be Mary and Jesus, needing a place to stay, cold and hungry with no manger available.” She was writing a sign with one hand while holding the baby with the other. I put a dollar in my pocket. Getting closer I noticed her long red curly hair, and fair skin. Placing the dollar by her hand I said “God Bless.” She looked up saying “Thank You” in the warmest voice I have ever heard. As if I had laid a $1,000 bill in her lap. Our eyes locked! My gift was puny in comparison to what she gave. Looking down into her eyes, I saw brilliant Great Rays of light streaming heavenward!

It was if I did not have a body because while looking down at her I could see into Heaven. I was stunned and stepped back as if an electric shock had been delivered. Tearfully stumbling up the street I wondered “What in was that?” Back at the office I tried to talk but couldn’t find the words. Much later I learned the Course speaks of the “Great Rays” – “As the ego would limit your perception of your brothers to the body, so would the Holy Spirit release your vision and let you see the Great Rays shining from them, so unlimited that they reach to God.”

I have received many lovely gifts in my life and I realize that words cannot explain this mystical experience. It may even be scoffed at but it left me knowing: God Is; Heaven Is and this world and its distractions are the fantasy.

The above appeared in the Ashland Daily Tidings on December 28, 2013 – See the poem at The Greatest Gift – the poem.

snowman final

There is no death – You will never die

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Your True Identity – You are Love

“Nothing real can be threatened,
nothing unreal exists.
Therein lies the peace of God.”
A Course In Miracles, Introduction

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What keeps inner peace from being realized is not knowing who/what you are. You are a work of God. You are not your body or the millions of ego thoughts that try to convince you that you are a body, with a certain DNA, subject to germs, illnesses or the particular identity given you at the birth of your body.

Yes, we all have a body but it is not who/what we are. What happens when the body dies? It is gently laid down and your real identity as Spirit continues. The Son of God can never die or be threatened or suffer since as God’s son we inherit all His attributes, being ONE with Him.

A good friend of mine died recently. She had gone through a year of cancer treatment. When she first became sick and the terrible word “cancer” was mentioned by her Doctor, and since we were on similar spiritual paths, I gently reminded her of her true identity and that she was not her body. “I know that!” she said emphatically!

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Everyone who knew her from Doctors, radiologists to friends and family were shown by her actions via her great Internal Spirit, that she was indeed not her body. Yes her body was losing its hair and weight and yes it was not very hungry but she did not identify with it as being her self. Her true Self, was Spirit and it was her source of Love.

Love was who she was, no matter if the body was sick or well. Love moved through her and out via her voice and the songs she loved to sing. Loved moved through her to the verbal blessings she gave not just to those whom she knew but it extended to people (strangers) she met in stores or restaurants. She never met a stranger! Her favorite saying was “God Bless your heart”? That was her. She never excluded anyone from her Love, and if she met you, she loved you. just like God!

About a month of two before she left her body, she had to wear a oxygen tube in her nose but did that stop her? Nope! She went everywhere dragging her metal oxygen canister along behind her. Many probably thought “Why doesn’t she just stay home and take it easy?” but she was proving to all that she was not going to let a little thing like a metal canister or cancer stop her from expressing her joy and Love!

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She was proving to those who were lucky enough to know her, that she was indeed a great spirit. She left her body with grace and a peace that is not of this world. And sure enough, she proved she was not her body because she left it lying on the bed like a shell and off she flew with her REAL spirit Self to her next lesson or maybe even HOME with God.

The spiritual book A Course In Miracles tells us that we are not our bodies, we are a Spirit Self that will never die because it is invulnerable. The body is useful and we care for it because it is a means of communication, but it is neutral and it is not the teacher….our Spirit Self that resides within us is our teacher and guide.

My friend’s Spirit that inhabited her body taught us all what she and We truly are. She did not slink away to hide the body’s dying process. She shared that it was not who she was…and neither are you.

You are Loved and you are not your Body. You are Spirit, complete and healed and whole. You will never die.

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Click here to sign the National Inner Peace Day petition
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/a-national-inner-peace?source=s.icn.em.mt&r_by=1650952

Harvard Nuerusurgeon Eben Alexander’s NDE Radically Changes His Beliefs (Videos & Text)

Dr. Eben Alexander – NDE

Your Holiness Shines Bright and Clear Today

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Today, is October 12th, 2013 is the 285th day of the year.
Consequently the workbook lesson in A Course of Miracles is lesson 285 –

My holiness shines bright and clear today.

Today I wake in joy, expecting but the happy things of God to come to me. I ask but them to come and realize my invitation will be answered by the thoughts to which it has been sent by me.

Janpanese Anenomes

Yes, I can expect the happy things but do I believe it?

The key here is that the thoughts, happy or sad are those that have “been sent by me.” In other words – I am in charge of my thoughts. Does anyone inflict their thoughts on my mind? I decide what to think! I am the decider!

I the decision maker can choose to believe the negative, miserable, hurtful, sad thoughts OR I can choose to revise the thoughts and change them into those that contain a hint of understanding, compassion, mercy and forgiveness. I can choose peace.

Do I believe my negative thoughts? Yes but the intention of the Workbook lessons is for us to continually repeat and repeat the beautiful lesson it until it becomes more and more believable and then finally – Mission Accomplished!

Don’t give up! Never give up! You are worth it.

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Click here to sign the National Inner Peace Day petition
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/a-national-inner-peace?source=s.icn.em.mt&r_by=1650952

Say It With Love

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Say It With Love

Can you think of a time when you wish you had said something differently or had not said what you did? We all have. But think of what might have been said if love was held in the mind. Perhaps you were angry at the time but if we can remember to stop, before we say something, take a breath and access the place within where love resides, we can trust what we will say will be loving. We don’t know what the words will be, but we can trust they will come from compassion; our true identity; the higher self; the wisdom shared with the Creator/God/Allah/Yahweh/Holy Spirit/Jesus i.e. Love. The other will recognize the love being offered and will not be offended.

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There is a place in you where peace and stillness abides. It is only found within and nowhere outside or in the world. The world can serve as a reminder of the sacred place and we visit Cathedrals, Holy Places and perhaps nature in search of peace but these things while being beautiful at merely echoes of what was first held in the mind.
Nourish, practice, develop and cultivate this center, the spirit Self that you are. It is the place to go when chaos arises; where the wisdom of love resides; and where to turn and ask “What would you have me say?” Be aware, it is not the ego part of the mind which usually speaks first. The ego mimics love but the difference is its manipulating rather than peace making.

The more you practice finding that “still center” the faster you will become at accessing it. The feeling we have when something is amiss sends us into fear or love. We usually go to fear but the instant you realize you are feeling fearful or upset, and it is not what you want, go to that place of refuge. Say “I’m feeling upset but I now choose the love within to guide me.” There are many spiritual paths that can help but the only one who can do it is you. There is a beautiful old hymn “You gotta walk that lonesome valley, you gotta walk it by yourself, nobody else can walk it for you. You gotta walk it by yourself.” We all walk the lonesome valley but help is within yourself, in your powerful mind.

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Eckhart Tolle’s book A New Earth has a chapter called Recognizing Inner Space. We have so many thoughts and distractions in the world that we are not aware of the consciousness of our true Self within. If we listen to our thoughts of worry, despair, achievement, anxiety and negativity we will not enjoy the simple things like watching clouds, the rain, and the flash of a blue jay or sunlight on a flower. He goes on to say “Stillness of the language God speaks and everything else is a bad translation.” As we become mindful we realize we can access this quiet space anytime, even while sitting through a tough meeting or watching a disaster on TV. Tolle says a space has opened in the mind; no matter how briefly, in the otherwise incessant stream of thinking. As we nurture and develop the inner center; let our awareness see and hear beauty; we expand the spacious place of love in the Mind. Choose to be and speak from that center of love that you are.

When you go to the still place; remind yourself: “I choose the love that is at my center to guide me. I ask to be guided by love.” You don’t know what you will say, but you can trust it will be something kind, loving and helpful. And don’t worry if nothing seems to come at that particular moment, but trust when the time is right you will say it with love; the love that you are, coming from the stillness within!

Sally facilitates an A Course In Miracles study group in Ashland and the Tidings Inner Peace column. This article first appeared in the Ashland Daily Tidings.

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You are invited to submit articles and share their experiences of inner peace. Send 600 to 700 word articles to innerpeaceforyou@outlook.com.

Pass the Peace: Click here to sign the National Inner Peace Day petition
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/a-national-inner-peace?source=s.icn.em.mt&r_by=1650952