How Do I Train My Mind?
The esthetician looks at my face and asks me what my areas of concern are. I tell her I have a list yet my face looks like my age and I’m happy with it. She shakes her young head. She can’t believe my age. She thinks I am twenty two years younger. She asks me my ‘hack’ to looking so young. Out of my mouth fly the words “my attitude.”
I lay on the facial lounge with a mister on my face and she says, “tell me about your attitude, how did you get it?”
“I trained my mind. I began in my 20s. It has really paid off.”
“How did you train your mind?” she asks me listening with intent.
I ask her if she has heard of Science of Mind, Centers for Spiritual Living or Unity. She hasn’t heard of any of these spiritual organizations. There is a moment when I wonder how I will answer her as I have no context for who she is. I go for it. I share with her what I’ve grown into. This is what I share. I have trained my mind to believe then know that:
Everything works together for my Highest Good. And the Higher is an Infinite Energy within me (and everyone).
I tell her that to fundamentalists sacred texts are literal. To metaphysicians they are symbolic and to mystics they are energetic. The fundamentalists of any religion includes or excludes you based upon following their rules. I say, “take being gay, for example. To a fundamentalist being gay is a sin and the sinner must change or they are out. To a metaphysician everyone has both male and female in them and Love is the answer; ALWAYS. To the mystic, being gay is a unique part of who one is and is necessary in the Ultimate Wholeness to be accepted and expressed.” The room is quiet for a moment.
Then this beautiful young woman tells me she is gay and her family doesn’t accept this part of her. I realize at this moment why the example was spoken through me and I am wonderfully delighted at how Spirit works.
I share with her that my hardest trials, like what she is going through, at its core is about my ability to accept and love ME as God made me. As I love discarded or judged parts of me I am able to love these aspects in other people. Otherwise I am a walking projection of unhealed energy.
I am always evolving into my next self which is for the benefit of me and humankind.
One of life’s big questions is WHY we are on the planet, at all. Most spiritual traditions say we are here to know Oneness and Love out of which we can’t help but serve each other. My evolution benefits not only me but humanity itself. My friend Rhonda and I have reminded each other for decades that becoming embodied is how God manifests Itself and can participate in sense-based living. Without a body God/Self can’t touch, kiss, hold, speak words of Love. It needs a body to act.
Love is the answer to EVERYTHING. Most people think that Love is mamsy-pamsy. It’s soft. It doesn’t hold power. This is an incorrect assessment. It is love of country right now that is bringing people to the streets, risking their lives and livelihood to go against the president’s ideals, people standing up to power, and engaging in Right Action. Love isn’t an emotion; but a FORCE. In Desmond Tutu’s book No Future Without Forgiveness he says the easy thing about the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission would have been to jail those who committed crimes against their neighbors. Lock them up, put them away. But having them sit and hear the pain they caused others and to feel how their choices impacted the greater community allows for wholeness to emerge instead of a continuous cycle of hatred. Love is Bold, Courageous, Uncomfortable, and shifts the narrative of hate.
Training my mind began with reading spiritual books every day and affirming the Truth of Spirit calling it forward within me. It begins with active work. Sometimes difficult work. I gave her the link to our YouTube channel and referred her to her local Unity and Center for Spiritual Living.
One aspect of my daily prayer is asking Divine Presence to bring me where I am to go and to do Its work in a scared and lonely world. Today was a good day. I felt connected to another person and I had a restful facial.
My prayer for you is to KNOW the Oneness.
Love Always,
