Negative Feelings Exercise by Fr. Anthony DeMello, S.J.

Posted on February 7, 2015 by Jmaz

From the book “Awareness” by Fr. Anthony DeMello, S.J.:

“First get in touch with yourself for a few seconds and become aware of your presence in the room and become aware of the kind of thoughts that are going on within you.

Think of somebody you’re living with or working with whom you do not like – who causes negative feelings to arise within you. Now let’s help you understand that. To understand what’s going on – first understand that the negative feeling is within you. What you understand will change.

You are responsible for the negative feeling. Not the other person. Somebody else in your place would be perfectly calm and at easy, in the presence of this person. Can you get in touch with that? Now say to this person, “I have no right to make any demand on you.” As you say that you drop your expectation – “I have no right to make any demand on you.”

I’ll protect myself from the consequences of your actions, moods, or whatever – but you can go on right ahead and be what you choose to be!

See what happens when you do this – And if there’s a resistance to saying that – my how much you’ll discover about yourself.

Let the dictator come out the tyrant too! You thought you were such a little lamb did you. I’m a tyrant – I want to run your life. I want you be what I expect you to be. Expect you to behave the way I want you to behave–and you better behave that way or else. Or I shall punish myself by having negative feelings. That sounds so wise doesn’t it?

PS: Fr. DeMello also has this to say about someone who feels they’ve been let down by someone else:

“Come off it, you never trust anyone, you simply trust your judgment about that person. Most people look to the other person and say, “how could you let me down” when the truth is they don’t want to say to themselves, “My judgment was lousy!”

Bye for now.

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Healing and Recovery by David R. Hawkins

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Jmaz

A while back I read a fascinating book by the late David R. Hawkins called “Healing and Recovery.” Much like his landmark title “Power versus Force,” “Healing & Recovery is packed with valuable information that challenges conventional approaches to healing. Typically, medical treatment is based on treating bodily symptoms that are allegedly causing the illness or disease to be present. In Hawkins’ world, this is not the appropriate way to address the problems. Why not? Because whatever is found in or on the body that has led to a health issue is NOT the cause of the problem, but merely the “effect” of something held in consciousness (or, in mind, if you will).

While this is not radical teaching in the world of mind-body medicine, Hawkins’ discussion is packed with some very solid theory to support his views. As such, in my view it is a very practical book. In it Hawkins described how he healed himself of numerous illnesses, including hypoglycemia (it took two years by the way). One of the techniques he applied was a series of affirmative statements, one that he used whenever thoughts would crop up about the disease or symptoms in question. Here is that affirmation:

I Am an Infinite Being
I am NOT subject to that
I am only subject to what I hold in mind
That does NOT apply to me
And I hereby cancel it and reject it.

From my perspective this is really powerful stuff.

Bye for now.

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Paying Closer Attention to Guidance

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Jmaz

Anyone who has been on the spiritual path for a while is familiar with the concept that guidance is always being given to us by Spirit (i.e., God, Higher Self, Angels, Spirit Guides). It’s just a matter of paying closer attention to the thoughts and ideas that come into our consciousness, and particularly to those that aren’t in the daily thought stream we’re accustomed to experiencing. A while back I had one of those “ah ha” experiences with respect to such guidance, and was inspired to take this opportunity to write about it.

It first began with me following an inspiration to visit YouTube and see if there was a video of an Alanis Morissette song she wrote in 1998 called “Joining You.” The tune is essentially about Alanis counseling a young woman who had been contemplating suicide. I had listened to that song recently, so it wasn’t as if there some “out-of-the-blue” nature to the guidance. Nonetheless, I promptly went on YouTube.com, searched on the song title and found there were several videos of it. For some reason, however, I was drawn to one in particular because the description said it included the song’s lyrics.

As it turned out, the video wasn’t actually of Alanis performing the song; it was a series of still shots that in some way related to the lyrics. It was a very powerful video that literally brought me to tears. As the song ended, I felt very inspired to share the link to it on social media. It is at this point where the story gets a bit more interesting, because a thought quickly came to me that I also needed to send the link to a friend from South America who was at the time living in Europe. For a moment I hesitated doing so simply because she was a Facebook friend, and would have seen the link on my status page anyway. However, something told me it was important to also send her a message about this link. It wasn’t as if I had any sense that she was despondent and was contemplating harming herself, in fact, I felt nothing of the sort. I just had this feeling that for some reason she needed to have this information.

Fast forward and I soon received a Facebook message from my South American friend that said the following: “The song you sent to me was a heavy one for the moment, I have lived through the process of suicide of the brother of my ex-partner a few years ago, and right at that moment you sent it, I had been talking everyday on the phone with a dear friend, trying to help him out of the same desire.”

After reading that message my mouth dropped a bit, and I felt a bit stunned as to the timeliness of me sending that information to her. While I don’t know any more of the story of her interaction with the friend who was contemplating suicide, I do know that the whole process that led me to send that link to her cannot be coincidental. It really boggles the mind just how connected all of us really are, and, how guided we all are if we are just open to “tuning in” and following the guidance that is apparently always available to us.

While the video I referenced above is no longer available on YouTube, here’s a link to the song with the lyrics.

Bye for now.

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The Science of Autosuggestion

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Jmaz

Years ago a close friend sent me an email friend with information about something called “the science of autosuggestion,” which was apparently created by a French pharmacist named Dr. Emile Couê. After coming across the information again the other day I felt  inspired to share it here on the SpiritSimple blog.

Every Day, In Every Way…

“In 1922, Dr. Emile Couê, a pharmacist who lived in a small brick house in Nancy, France, became world famous. He had stumbled on a remarkable cure for a variety of ills — a cure which became known as the science of autosuggestion.

News reports from that time marveled, “Week after week, people stricken with disease come to Dr. Coué and go away strengthened, on the road to recovery, sometimes instantaneously cured.” The fame of Dr. Coué’s achievements spread throughout the world. Thousands of people began to repeat his formula for health and happiness. Coué’s technique was deceptively simple and his honesty quite disarming. “I have never cured anyone,” he told reporters, “you can train your subconscious to radiate health and success.”

What was Dr. Coué’s attitude-building technique? Every morning, before getting up, and every evening as soon as you are in bed, shut your eyes and repeat 20 times in succession, moving your lips (that is indispensable) and recounting mechanically the following phrase: “Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better.”

This sentence is so simple that its very simplicity makes it work. “In every way” broadcasts to our subconscious that we are getting better physically, mentally, professionally, financially and any other way we can possibly imagine. “I am getting better” regenerates our hopes for the future; I may be improved tomorrow, but the next day there will be greater and greater improvement.

Why the lips moving? Because Coué suggested that the belief in the power of autosuggestion must come from the imagination, not the will. “Whenever the imagination and the will are in conflict, the imagination wins, The mechanical counting and the movement of the lips occupy the conscious mind, including the will, and leave the subconscious mind open to create positive images.”

Does Dr. Coué’s autosuggestion work? Try it. If Dr. Coué were alive today he would tell you what he once told a reporter: “To become master of oneself, it is enough to think that one is becoming so. It is not in me but in yourself that you must have confidence, for it is in yourself alone that dwells the force which can make you the master. My part simply consists of teaching you to make use of that force.”

The above excerpt is from a book entitled “The Psychology of Sales Success” by Gerhard Gschwandtner.

Bye for now.

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