Relax

A sweet angel dropped me the line : "Relax in your enthusiasm and willingness to be spiritual.  
There is no need for much effort. When we relax we blossom and open up to GRACE."

 

I immediately identified how I have been trying to grow and improve myself and yet in my trying I have created much stress for myself. Trying implies that I have still got work to do to improve, that I am not fully evolved and that I am not satisfied with who I am.

Osho says in his book 'Intimacy' "When you stop improving yourself, life improves you. In that relaxation, in that acceptance, life starts caressing you, life starts flowing through you."

I realise that I need to accept myself as I am even though it goes against my conditioning, my education, my religion, my ego.

Osho goes on to say, "What is the beauty of the poor flower? It is in utter acceptance. It has no program in its being to improve. It is here now - dancing in the wind, taking a sunbath, talking to the clouds, falling asleep in the afternoon warmth, flirting with the butterflies.... enjoying being, loving, being loved."

So my message today is short and sweet. As I pack my belongings into my suitcase and prepare for a month of holidaying at the Vaal river, I am going to be like a flower. I am going to bask in 'being-ness'. I am going to relax and stare at the clouds. I am going to bask in the glorious warmth of the sun's rays. I am going to embrace acceptance of my being without need of doing or becoming anything other than that which I am.

And I already feel the weight of self judgement and anxiety dropping from my shoulders. I feel as though I am already lying on the banks of the river. I am there.

Wherever you are this Christmas may you feel complete and satisfied in the knowledge that you are exactly where you are meant to be. You are exactly who you are meant to be and you need do nothing to make yourself anything more or less to diminish or increase your worth.

May you enjoy your rest. May you revive your spirit and I look so forward to touching base with you again in the New Year.

Have a blessed Christmas

with all my love
Nicolette

Everything and Nothing

On Course at the Mega Part One, 'Art Of Living' this weekend I was asked the question: "What do I take responsibility for?" and without much contemplation my instant response was: "Nothing". I was fascinated by all the different answers, but when my friend Sonia replied that she takes responsibility for everything I questioned myself and engaged myself in a deeper search for an answer.

As I questioned myself about what responsibility means to me it triggered the response: ACCOUNTABILITY which in turn triggered the emotional response of BLAME. I immediately saw through myself to my protective pattern to which I have clung through the years. I saw how I was terrified of owning a pet because I'd be committing to remain responsible for their welfare for a long time to come. I remember balking at the idea of marriage and children in my twenties because the thought of all that responsibility seemed too great to bear. I confronted myself on the issue of my husband's communication to me that he feels burdened with all the responsibility of our finances, discipline of our children, just everything and I started to observe that through my reluctance to commit to being responsible to anyone or for anything I had burdened him with a huge emotional load.

Delving into the possibility of stepping up to the proverbial plate and accepting responsibility for something I started with myself.

I immediately discovered that I feel fully responsible for my own thoughts, words and actions and in fact all of the choices that I make, whether they are the choice to create separation or to love. As I sat with this consciousness I explored the option of creating obstacles for others by the choice of my negative intentions and perhaps careless egotistical actions. Every thought, word or action that I initiate has a cause and effect knock on. I realise that my sending love into the world has a loving knock on effect and likewise my sending anger or egotistically charged emotions into the ethers has a negative effect.

However, how others react to the ripples I cause is something that everyone has to take responsibility for. Do we wish to perpetuate the cycle of negativity or do we negate it by propagating love. Do we become entangled in bitterness, unforgiveness and blame allowing our egos to lord it over our true selves or do we see through the dark actions of others as a cry for love and support?

The more I sit with the question, the more I observe how much influence I have in the thoughts and deeds I project. I realise too that we all need to encounter difficulty and trials so as to allow us the opportunity for growth and development. It is only when we have experienced suffering that we know how much better it feels to be free of suffering. But suffering is indeed an important asset in finding true happiness. These two opposites are vital for the existence of each other and they are complimentary.

To realise this is complete power. I realise my power in my freedom to choose. Do I choose to create division and misery and hardships for others? Do I want to be the cause of other's suffering and life lessons? Or do I want to be a gift of love, peace and happiness?

And in as much as I believe that we all need our share of suffering and sadness, I know that it is not my wish to be the creator of such. My wish is to be a messenger of love and for that I take 100% responsibility.

I pledge to constantly remain in a state of awareness, to catch myself when ego steps out of line which is a minute by minute challenge. I promise myself to think kindly of others, to give them the benefit of any doubt, to love unconditionally and to do unto others as I would pray others do to me.

If I can just be responsible for generating love consciousness and compassion in this world, then I have freedom from fear, hatred and all host of unloving emotions. When I am responsible for how I think, act or speak then I am accountable for how I influence others' lives and because I don't wish to walk around with guilt of adding to others burdens, it is my choice to be LOVE. I fully accept the responsibility.

And in accessing the love within me I realise that 'I' am nothing and 'LOVE' is everything. It is not mine to give. It is free to all of us who are receptive to it and I am just a channel through which LOVE flows.

I am responsible for allowing love to flow through me. And I am so blessed by this awakening.

May you be a divine channel of love this week as we prepare our hearts and minds for the season of giving. Let's be responsible for channelling love this Christmas. Let's see how much joy we can bring to others.

all of Love's richest blessings
Nicolette

Love Rules

How many lifetimes have we wasted obsessing about how others do things, trying to win arguments, trying to get people to see things from our point of view, trying to find perfectly like minded people? Isn't it exhausting?

Why do we need to be understood, validated and assured? Why do we constantly seek the company of those who won't challenge us? Why do we feel the need to assert our cleverness and boast our superiority? Why do we need to judge others as evil, bad, unworthy or less evolved? Why do we need to be right and everyone else wrong?

The answer: EGO

If we were to spend a tenth of the time we spend criticising and judging others rather focusing on  love and being a transmitter of compassion, we'd witness a miracle beyond belief.

To be without ego, we need to be void of thought forms and words. We need to be in the gap between the past and the future. We have to be split second present in the constantly recurring 'now'. Imagine if each one of us were to invest 2 and a half hours a day in that oneness with our creator, in that space of no judgement, just pure essence, just vibrating to the rhythm of contented bliss, peace and gratitude. How would that affect the quality of our lives? How would that spill over into our world around us?

Actually, for a miracle to occur it only takes a split second of being without ego, in a place void of judgement, in the presence of compassion.

This feeling that I'm talking about, for those who haven't experienced it yet, is the most wondrous and ecstatic feeling, more euphoric than a lifetime of orgasms. The first time I felt this was during meditation on the Part 1, 'Art of Living' Course I attended a few years ago.

To experience oneness with our creator is to awaken from our dream. It is to become aware of the unimaginable power we house within us. When we hold this loving energy at the centre of our life experience then all judgement dissolves. We begin to think like God because we are plugged in. The challenge to ourselves is to stay connected.

I don't want to waste another day, no, not another minute, not another millisecond of my precious life obsessing about what others are or aren't doing. I don't want to have an opinion about every act or occurrence in my world around me. I just want to enjoy my resonance with one and all. I want to squeeze out every bit of joy that is mine for enjoying whist I roam this physical plain. And to do that I can't be putting my nose in other's affairs. My attention needs to be inner focused.

I no longer want to criticise and complain, causing my physical body to suffer and ail. I choose joy and health and peace to be mine.

Instead of fighting you I am now loving you
Instead of criticising you I'm seeing you in all your beauty
Instead of questioning you I am now accepting you
Instead of keeping score I am forgiving you

All this precious time I've wasted
All the pain and suffering I've caused in futile ego battles
My love is far greater than these silly games

Love is who I am
Love is power
Love is the way and...
Love rules!

I love you ‘til it aches in that place where love sits and the ache feels so good that I never want to stop loving.
 
Let's see how much love we can mutiply this week. See how much joy you can squeeze out of your existence even if you have to cut the bottom of the tube off to extricate the last drop.

I love and you're next!

Nicolette