My favorite question to ask women is "how well do you receive?"  It usually gets a laugh because when you ask a woman this question it's like we're all in on the same joke.  Not very well thank you.  I don't even have to really explain what I'm asking, women just get it.

    If you're a woman reading this, what is your first reaction to that question?  How well do you receive in your life?  No matter what your answer I'm fairly certain that there is room to "improve" in this area.

    The basic attraction formula we've all been ...<< MORE >>

    For those who have read James Arthur Ray, he makes the bold statement that "Balance is Bogus."  While a well supported argument within the context he wrote about, I had some additional thoughts on this subject.

    The idea of perfect balance seems highly unlikely, after all, isn't nature in a constant state of achieving balance.  The seasons come and go and with out fall, there could be no spring.  

    However, one of his main points is that we thrive best under stress and that stress will make us grow and reach in new and more productive ways.  While ...<< MORE >>

    I just got off the phone with a colleague who is working with a woman trying to end a relationship of 7 years.  She has the on again off again cycle going with him.  Seven years of his telling her "I will never commit to you, but I do love you, sometimes."  How much longer should she wait?  What is she waiting for?

    Most of us can relate to the feeling of loving someone more than they love us.  The feeling of so desperately wanting them to love us or leave us, but just give us the closure we ...<< MORE >>

    The favorite saying of many, including Abraham, is to "follow your bliss."  I've found some humor in the time since I first came across this saying in how its definition has changed, evolved, and then returned to previous versions!

    Bliss is technically defined as:  complete happiness, heaven, and/or paradise.  Now, I'm sure most of us want that, but how do we follow it?

    The first personal definitions for me were the really good stuff happening and that meant I'd feel blissful.  Then is shifted around a little more to experiences that brought me to bliss.  Moments in time that ...<< MORE >>

    It's amazing how easy it is to give advice but so difficult to follow you own!  The last few days have left me stumbling around a problem that I could feel the answer to, but I couldn't quite find the right words or actions that matched.

    Now, my advice to anyone else would have been "stop focusing on the answer to the big issue and ask the law of attraction to bring to you what you need to find your right words and actions."

    However, it took longer than it needed to get where I wanted because I spent ...<< MORE >>

    The other night I couldn't sleep and turned on an old episode of "Sex in the City."  The theme of the show was asking if women still wanted to be rescued?  Even more directly, at what age does that fantasy need to retire, or is it really a secret wish that so many still long for?

    While there are a million answers to that question, if you look at it in relationship to being a deliberate creator of your own life, there is only one answer.  If our entire purpose of being here at this time and place is ...<< MORE >>

    Who am I and why am I here?  Isn't that the foundational question we are all working towards or running from?  Whoever said the fastest route was a straight line between points A and B was clearly not walking the spiritual path!

    Every question, every program, every teacher is leading us in an ironically indirect route to the ultimate answers of these eternal questions.  Doesn’t that just make you want to ask why again?

    Why can't we start where Jesus or Buddha left off?  If Jesus gave us the ultimate commandment to Love our neighbors as our God and ...<< MORE >>

    A few days ago I turned to the Anne Bancroft (as Annie Sullivan) version of Helen Keller's life story on the TV.  What first captured my attention was the actress playing a young Helen Keller throwing herself all around.  When Annie showed up it got even more physical!  I don't think "Hollywood" could get away with such a physical feat in today's world of drama around hangnail trauma.

    Knowing the storyline didn't require me to wait and see what would happen, but I found myself captivated and expectant of the moment that Helen "gets it."  I wanted to feel what I imagined she felt, that first moment of this is it!

    Waiting for the aha moment in the movie however revealed something that was even more relevant to so many of us.  Here was this young girl, deaf and blind, struggling to understand the world around her minus the senses most of us have been "blessed" with.

    She does the best she can, but her family is so indulgent she becomes more wild animal than maturing child.  That is until Annie shows up.  No more temper tantrums from Helen that go unchallenged by her new teacher.

    Huh, something here was beginning to look awfully familiar….  Willful insistence that was based on the 5 senses I believe I am limited to.  Physical displays of frustration for not getting my way just because I wanted something.  Insistence on doing it my way even if that meant spending untold hours (days, years?) thrashing around on the floor with very little to show for it other than a big mess to clean up.

    I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going!  Helen Keller was reminding me a little too much of me!  But there was one big difference; I didn't have an Annie Sullivan to teach me the new way.  Annie held on until Helen gave up from exhaustion.  Annie believed in Helen and saw her as she could be, not as she was.  Annie didn't wait for Helen to love her first so that she could give her what she needed; she just did what was best for Helen.

    While most of us don't have an Annie to do this for us, we do have the higher part of us to hold on to the lower until we get through the temper tantrums.  If we could all give ourselves the gift of self-discipline in our thoughts and feelings how would our world transform?

    For those who follow the Teachings of Abraham, I imagine they feel a little like Annie.  Just how long can those humans hold their breath and stomp their feet and why are they so stubborn!

    I often ask myself the same question; exactly what is the benefit to the temper tantrum again?  For those not familiar with the story of Helen Keller, she went on to become a powerful force in the world.  She transcended what we would see as limitations and lived a life far beyond anything most of us will come to know.  She never was able to use her eyes or ears, but funny, she didn't really need them once she understood the rules to the game.

    

        

    When is a slap in the face a good advice?  When it's not a hand that hits you, but rather a powerful force of energy that gets your attention and brings your attention to where you really are.

    This is an amazing time in our world's history, the energy available to us to create is more powerful than ever before.  But with that power comes responsibility and self-discipline.  Why?  Because every creation has an effect and when you are not creating responsibly, you are affecting our entire Universe, the ripple effect is greater than we can even begin to imagine!

    I've been on this path for almost 30 years, but very little of that time has been spent in the true place of why we were given this power to create.  Like most, I was focused on what I wanted and how I could make it happen, even though I may have told myself I was utilizing Universal Law at the time!

    Several years back, a wonderful woman who held seminars in Phoenix was extremely generous with her time in talking and trying to help me.  I was in that place where I had a little bit of knowledge and very little self-discipline or mastery!  I was a mess of energy spewing what I thought were good intentions, but was really just me "sharing" my messy energy with anyone who came into close contact.

    During our last conversation I was pushing in my energy at her (as I understand it now, not then) because I told myself I was asking for her help, but what I was really doing was wanting her to tell me "my way" was the right way.  I wanted her to tell me I could do whatever I wanted energetically (read that as taking no responsibility for my energy) and still get the results when, how, and where I wanted - oh, and that would be NOW!  If you have a child with a strong will and big temper tantrums, you've got the picture.

    In just one moment she said, "Stop Jill, I can't help you because you don't want to listen, you want to be right."  I think she was as shocked as I was!  I don't remember much else, just getting off the phone quickly and feeling very ashamed and embarrassed.

    Now, in a perfect story that "slap" would have woke me up and life would have been uphill from there.  However, what really happened was several years of life bringing me to my knees, losing everything I loved, and leaving me humbled in a way I could not have previously imagined nor would I wish on anyone.

    Fast forward to today and I can still "feel" her energy slapping at my face.  She did it with love because her intention was to truly help me, but as we all must learn, no one can do the work for us.  She was absolutely right, I didn't want the truth, I wanted "my" truth without any real maturity or growth on my part.

    Advice, wisdom, truth is only as good as your willingness to "hear" it.  But it really goes even deeper, true understanding will come when you live the lesson.  No one can give or teach it to you.  

    My journey has been long, painful, and full of lots of fear and resistance.  I have spent thousands of dollars searching for relief, read hundreds of books, and researched a multitude of disciplines to try and "get" the life of peace and joy that we have been promised.

    But the only thing that has worked consistently and purposefully in my life is when I stopped trying to get anything without being willing to do the work to sustain it.  The work is not manifesting what you want.  The work is learning and becoming the truth about who you are and why you are here.  You will know you are there when you feel the deep peace and pure joy emanating from within and under all circumstances.  Others will know because they will feel this peace radiating from you.  Your ego can't "make" this happen, only you can as you are willing to let go of what is not real.

    To do this means you must master your mind, your heart, and your will.  Please know this is not an easy task, nor one most of us will do perfectly.  Do know that in this time there are powerful energies assisting you, wonderful tools and teachers to guide you, and most importantly know that God, or the Creator, is holding you as your perfect truth….just waiting for you to "grow up", do the work, and remember who you really are and why you are here.

    All the "stuff" you are being told that you can have with just a few new thoughts is like the free door prize to get you to attend the main event!  You are not here to get stuff, you are here to remember what all great teachers have said.  But Jesus made it simple "know ye are gods" and to be of God means to be Creator.  When you get here you won't care about stuff, you'll just care.

    
    

        

    What would it feel like to be held within the gaze of someone who loved you unconditionally?  Have you ever been blessed with that feeling, of just being loved purely and absolutely for no other reason than "just because you are?

    Bridget Jones (Bridget Jones Diary movie) finally realized Mark Darcy loved her when he told her he did, "just the way you are."  In her case that was someone who was less than perfect, much like we all are in our own unique ways.

    When Jesus used the word "father" the meaning at that time was "beloved."  To be loved is the greatest gift we can receive; it just feels so beautiful and comforting.
    
    And it is the greatest gift we can give.  Walking the dog this morning my friend was in the throws of her latest relationship drama and talked about how she was moving into the numb stage.  Her response, from her words, because of the relationship she had as a child with her alcoholic mother.  It's how she survived.

    But it made me think how we all become numb in so many ways that prevent us from knowing the fullness of being loved as the beloved.  We lose sight of what we love because we're focusing on what we're not getting from the person who is supposed to be loving us.

    Now, before you say you know that take a moment and look within yourself at all your relationships, especially the ones that aren't new anymore.  Do you still gaze at the one you love, are you able to hold them as the beloved that they are?

    Because my work is focused on women I'm going to add that for most women it's much easier to look at another and see the beloved before they can see it within themselves.  Yet, to truly see this in another, you must see it in yourself first.  Remember, you can't give what you don't have and you can't keep what you don't give away.

    Today, as you move among those you know, those you love, and those you don't love so much, soften your focus and look beyond their humanness and find within them that which is the beloved.

    Find the feeling of warmth within you, the tenderness of holding them closely, and the beauty of their beingness as you see them for who they truly are.  They are you.  They are God.  They are perfect.  All you need to do is behold them in this way.

    For my intentions as I write this know that every word is written holding all those who read it as the beloved.  Know that in this moment I am beholding you as the beloved, because me dearest friend, that is what you are.

Jill