Feeling Good

03/08/20 Jeremiah 40:4 “See, the whole land is before you; go wherever you think it good and right to go.” I want to speak today about feeling good, our wellbeing. When we think of wellbeing, many of us first think about our bodies and our health, Certainly, our physical condition is an important part of our wellbeing. But also important is maintaining a positive, life-affirming mental attitude. As human beings, our bodies are prone to all sorts of aches, pains, and ailments, but it is our attitude that dictates how we feel. Some people can be challenged physically, but their attitude shines with love despite their physical dis-ease. We can be burdened by stresses and responsibilities, yet our disposition determines how we respond and react to our circumstances. While we have no control over what happens to our bodies, or ‘out there’, we have total control over how we respond to what happens ‘out there’. We are co-creators with God for the abundance in our lives, and we decide how we feel in every situation we encounter. We possess the ability to feel good right now, and not wait until we’ve lost the weight, found the right job, learned the rights skills, or attracted the right people or knowledge. We hold the key to always feeling fulfilled, content, satisfied and joyful. Feeling good, developing superior wellbeing is about releasing. We must release what has happened in the past: five minutes ago, last week, last year, and when we were children. Objectively, the past can teach us about what mistakes in judgments, words, and attitudes we can change. But it is the releasing of the emotions surrounding our mistakes that is most important. Our wellbeing is strengthened as we let go of the emotions around the hurts that others have inflicted upon us. We are taught to forgive others for the trespasses, the errors, committed against us. In asking God for forgiveness for the errors we have made, we are forgiving ourselves. We are not our mistakes; we are not our poor judgment, nor are we our emotions, and neither is anyone else. We can let them go. We can change our focus from the pain of the past to what we can do today to live a better and more Christ-filled life. We are in the pilot’s seat of our vessel, and as CJ says, God is the co-pilot. In Luke 11:34, we are told, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light.” This means where we are looking, our focus. If our focus is healthy, on God, on love, then all of our being is filled with Light. Part of feeling good is saying “YES!” to Life and what God offers us. When we trust God, that whatever we encounter is being adapted for our good, then it is easy to say ‘yes’ to things. ‘Yes” to traffic jams, because we can believe that our current delay now is in synchronicity with avoiding some awful thing a while from now. No, we can never prove that, but that’s how we can think – that God causes all things to work together for good. From the moment we wake in the morning, we can start saying ‘Yes!” We can say ‘yes, think ‘yes’, and feel ‘yes’ all day long. Saying ‘yes’ feels good in our hearts, minds, and gut. As we look in the mirror, say ‘yes’. ‘Yes’ is an affirmation of Gods plans, God’s perfection, God’s Will, and putting God first. Saying ‘Yes’ to God releases the will and influence of others on us. Releasing and saying ‘yes’ work together to maintain our wellbeing and sense of feeling good. Also important is deliberately choosing our thoughts, words, and actions; it is living with intention. 1 Corinthians 10:13 teaches, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” Regardless of the temptations and attractiveness of the world, we have within us the capacity to move beyond temptation; we have the power of Christ and the power of choice. We can always be reaching for the better feeling thought. If we want a life of joy, ease, love and peace, then we can choose the thoughts, actions, and words that lead us there. It is simple, although it may not be easy. If we are constantly thinking about the past, our pains, our trials, and denying the good that God offers us, then it is difficult to choose rightly. Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” When we attune to God, a newness within us is born: our heart and attitudes become pure and our choices become ‘right’, aligned with Spirit. Living with intention is living a life of choosing and directing the energy of our thoughts, either productively and positively or toward counterproductive and negative results. There are many scientists who have researched in varies ways what they call the ‘mind-matter connection’. It is the premise that our consciousness influences matter, the physical world, at least at the quantum level. At the Science of Consciousness conference in 2016, Dr. Dean Radin made a presentation with these conclusions: 1. The role of consciousness in the physical world can be tested. 2. It has been tested, in many different ways. 3. The results show that consciousness is an active participant in reality. My friend, Dan, sent me another link to a study on the same subject that concludes that consciousness, the observer, who we really are, is in control of our entire reality. “How we define what plays out in our world is entirely up to us on a collective scale.” The World is infinite possibility and potential and our consciousness, individually and collectively can shape it as we direct our thoughts. In other words, our minds, our consciousness, can affect the world around us. Dr. Radin’s own experiments showed this is especially true for meditators, people who have trained their minds to focus their attention clearly and singularly for periods of time. My takeaway from these studies is that the more we can focus our attention, with intention, upon a particular physical phenomenon, the more we can adjust it to what is best for us. Of course, science does not include the possibility of God, but our consciousness is nothing but Spirit’s energy/wave/particle/essence within us. To feel good, we also need to surround ourselves with people who feel good. One of my favorite motivational speakers, Jim Rohn, posited that, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” To many, that can be a frightening proposition. Subconsciously, we tend to attune our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual energies to those around us, whether or not they are a good influence. And if it is not in person, then we attune to written materials and spoken influences. Who are we allowing into our heads and hearts? Who are we listening to? What are we reading and watching on our devices? We can’t kid ourselves, everything that we allow into our head has an influence; it all weighs something. We become a deliberate and intentional co-creator with God when we purposefully and carefully choose our influencers. Feeling good, our wellbeing, our sense of joy, love, and peace are within our control, because we are connected to the unlimited power of God within us. This power is Omnipresent; we can find it everywhere – in people, places, within religions, and in nature. One of the most common ways for people to experience the closeness of Spirit, or the Universe or God, give it whatever name you are comfortable with, is in Nature. Being in nature gives us the opportunity to find respite from the stresses and chaos of our modern world and lifestyles. It’s in the wilderness, devoid of technology and distractions, that we face our self and our circumstances in one of the rawest, purest, and most vulnerable ways we can experience. If we wish physical wellbeing, we eat properly and exercise. If we desire mental wellbeing, we read, listen, study, and learn. Emotional and psychological wellbeing requires managing stress, depression, and anxiety, and embracing people, thoughts, and activities that increase our self-esteem and acceptance, positiveness, and emotional maturity. Spiritual wellbeing begins with releasing, forgiving, and placing ourselves in an attitude of peace and serenity. Nothing is better for our soul than finding a quiet prayerful place to look inside and outside. The beauty of a sunrise, the quiet voice of a stream, are spiritual therapies. The deserts, tropics, tundra, oceans, and mountains can be a panacea for the restlessness the World offers. It is my prayer, that wherever we are, by listening to the still, small, subtle whispers of Christ, we can step out of our hamster wheel and find the fulfillment, contentment, and joy of God. Then, as Spirit fills us, I pray that we find within ourselves the unique and uncommon qualities that God gave us to share with all of Creation; things we had no idea were even there, as if on a need to know basis – the solutions, strength, wisdom, satisfaction, happiness, and love. As our opening Bible verse says, God offers us the whole world, the whole land – all the outer lands, as well as the inner lands – to have and explore. Every day is a new day, and the beginning of a new life. Today, right now, God wants us to experience all the good of Spirit, with the intent that all of God’s Children are to be united, joyful, peaceful, loving, and feeling good.