The Inner Peace Center

As the spiritual leader of a Flint church, I know that t is difficult, sometimes, for people to find their individual center and discover the Inner Peace that resides there. It seems that the more “personal” a situation is for us, that is to say, the more of the “ego” that is involved, the harder it is for us to let go of whatever it is and take the sacred “ego-free” journey within.  A case in point, the other day as I settled myself to meditate, a family issue came to mind. The more I “tried” to forget about it by telling myself that  “somehow” it would be resolved in the future, the more it remained in in the forefront of my mind and the more agitated I became.

What I discovered during this mental discomfort of “deferred resolution” was that all sorts of other problems that needed “fixing” came to mind as well, seeming to feel “right at home” in the chaotic space I’d created.  It was a “Catch 22″ situation, the more I tried to solve each problem, the more problematic they became!

Then these questions came to mind: What if the problems in my life were already resolved? What if the love that felt lost to me was already present? What if all that I tried so hard to know and understand in my life were already known to me and the striving was over? What if every duty had already been met, every task had already been accomplished?…Then…from the sublime to the ridiculous…a segment of The Daily Show, John Hodgman’s “You’re Welcome,” came to mind. If you’ve never seen this particular segment on The Daily Show, suffice it to say that in it John Hodgman is accepting the world’s “thank you’s” for solving a variety of still-to-be-solved issues.

I began to slowly and deeply breathe in and out, imagining that I was breathing from a space where my life was already perfectly resolved into bliss. As I did this, the feeling of being rather than becoming pulled me into my center. I could have sworn I heard a Still Small Voice whisper, “You’re Welcome,” and it filled me with delight and extraordinary peace.

As I completed my meditation, sitting in the peaceful sanctuary of one of the loveliest Flint metaphysical churches in the area, I could see a double meaning in the whispered “You’re Welcome.” Not only was everything resolved, known, and complete in that inner place of peace, but it was a place where I was always “welcome.” Come unto me and I will give you rest.

Technorati Tags: Flint church, Flint metaphysical churches, inner peace, John Hodgman, meditation

In Psalms 69:30, we read these words of David: I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving. It is also written in Psalms that King David wasn’t a spectator, sitting on his throne, when it came to parades, but instead danced in the streets much to the dismay, and often the denunciation, of pompous observers. But, David could neither hide his joy nor allow it to remain unexpressed no matter how harshly anyone judged him.

Often, we forget to appreciate our life, as it is, when we’re consumed by getting more stuff. Okay, so we don’t live in a palace, and perhaps we haven’t gotten all that we would like to get in this world quite yet, but certainly there is plenty in our life for which we can feel gratitude.  Several years ago, a young man, named Miguel, with whom I’d become acquainted didn’t appear to have many worldly possessions. He lived in a tiny room attached to my neighbor’s garage. He did odds job around the neighborhood during the day and at night he worked as a janitor. I heard that he sent most of his scant wages to his parents and younger siblings who lived somewhere in Mexico. Yet, I’d never seen him unhappy. He walked with joy in his step, he genuinely whistled while he worked, and there was always light in his large, brown eyes. Curious as to how he could sustain so much joy, I asked him his secret. He told me, “Any day above ground is a good day.”

Let’s face it, nothing is more precious than scarcity. Life on the planet is finite. But, we’re here now! Just being alive was reason enough for Miguel to feel gratitude. Our life is a miracle that we have not made or earned. As the saying goes, “Life is a gift, that’s why it’s called the present.” However, have we accepted the gift without saying “thank you”? Are we waiting, instead, for more…and more “stuff” before we sing our song of thanksgiving?

What good would all our possessions be if we couldn’t feel appreciation for them? And, likewise, if we were able to feel joy in being alive, whether we possessed anything at all, then our “neediness” would disappear.

The future may hold the promise of prosperity and abundant good, but we hold the gift of “the present” in our hands right now. Let the music of our hearts play a song of praise so the we may dance with the Spirit today.

Technorati Tags: appreciation, gratitude, joy, praise, Psalms

It is the universe’s nature to grow and evolve. Help it do this by increasing your awareness of abundance and in return, widening the flow of abundance into your life. Knowledge is information and information is a form of energy, so to enhance your experience of abundance you must heighten your awareness of “becoming abundant” so you can apply this information as technique. Mere information without application is useless!

The secret to intelligence is not what you know, but how you apply what you know. We all know this as “technique” or “strategy.” There is a technique to everything! In every sport, the person or team with the best technique or strategy wins! Even in school, the person with the best strategy for learning and testing gets the best grades. Two people with equivalent knowledge but with different technique will get 2 totally different results!

There is a strategy to manifesting and strategy to attracting whatever your mind imagines. An unwise person looks at their life and blame others for it, and an intelligent person is a person of power and sees there life as there very own unique creation. Your life as you see it is a manifestation of past actions. You can only create in the now. Whatever you are experiencing in life is from years of manifesting it. You are shaping your future right now as we speak. This is a universal law and universal truth so everyone knows this, so it is about remembering.

The “Law of Magnetization”

Become a magnet for which you desire. Feelings determine the nature of the energetic state of your being and they are magnets. Why do people ignore their feelings when feelings are forms of energy and are important tools for manifesting things into your life? You are surrounded by an electromagnetic field of energy that attracts what is in resonance with it and repels what isn't. Feel abundantly wealthy if wealth is what you want. In the moment of magnetization, you imprint onto your consciousness the substance of physical abundance and material riches. Material means that which is manifested. The purpose of spirituality is to have spirit mold itself into the form of your physical experiences.

Technorati Tags: attract it, imagination, intuition, law of attraction, Manifest, manifestation, manifesting, meditation technique, mentalism, mentalist, mind, superconscious, universe, visualizations

To best empower your intuitive senses, you should be in an open and receptive frame of mind, a sensitive place where you are attuned to insights and impressions, no matter how subtle or symbolic they might be. This state is best attained when your conscious, analytical mind is detached, leaving you in a humble, non-judgmental mode, free of the dictates of logic and reason.

The alpha and theta states induced in the Intuition Zone guided meditations part the ‘veils between worlds’ and make possible the dawning of higher states oc consciousness within you. It is in these twilight arenas that your intuition functions best and can be interacted with most completely.

All forms of meditation as well as many relaxation procedures can serve to quiet the voice of your conscious mind, opening you to the whisperings and messages of your intuition. But the guided meditations of the Intuition Zone go beyond this. They actively facilitate the engagement of your intuitive senses and empower your intuition.

That said, you don’t always need to be in a meditative state to work with and apply your intuition, and there are a great many exercises in the Intuition Zone program that explore this. The ‘Earth-Light’ meditation recording is specifically created to clear and align your energy system and connect you to source, so that you are more open and able to receive higher awareness. This meditation, with its purifying, centering, and consciousness raising effects, is an ideal primer to any intuitive practice, as well as to becoming an open and willing conduit.

Your intuition is most accessible when you are functioning outside your normal, rational, judgmental mode of awareness. In everyday life this can often be experienced when doing automatic, ‘mindless,’ or repetitive tasks, such as showering, knitting, washing the dishes, or doing chores, and so on. When we are engaged in these kinds of activities our conscious minds are most likely to switch themselves off. This makes it so that higher inspiration and intuitive gestalts can find their way into your consciousness without running the gauntlet of doubt and questions and logic applied by your analytical mind.

In the ‘Inner Realm’ meditation of the Intuition Zone program you will connect with the personification of your Higher Self and leads you to experience their pure unconditional love, absorbing this energy at a fundamental level. During this divine union, you will dissolve the limitations and roadblocks that keep you from the truth of who you are, and the illusion of separation which feeds the ego and misleads your heart. Experiencing the divine love that is there for you in every moment, will heal and blossom your heart so you can know and experience more of the ultimate truth of reality – that only love is real.

You can begin to experience the divine guidance of the ‘Earth-Light’ and other guided Intuition Zone meditations today. Simply visit this Intuition Zone review site to begin the liberation of your intuitive self.

Technorati Tags: guided meditation, guidedmeditation, intuition zone, intuition zone review, intuitionzone, intuitionzonereview

Asking questions is definitely one of the most powerful ways to request and receive intuitive guidance. Asking questions of your Higher Self, your unconscious mind, deities, or whatever powers you believe in, will focus and hone your intentions to receive guidance, and throw open the doors of your mind to receive it.

Whenever you humbly and sincerely ask for help, you are signaling that you truly desire that help or guidance, and that you are willing and anxious to receive it into your heart and mind. As you might expect, specifically asking for the help you desire sends a clearer, stronger message, making an answer more likely and increasing your sensitivity to whatever form that answer may take whether direct internal messages, or hints, whispers, and metaphoric messages that manifest themselves in your outer world.

Nearly all living beings ask such questions internally from time to time, though seldom in the conscious, directed fashion that brings answers. Do half-conscious questions and requests like these run through your mind, “I wish I knew just what to do here”, or “Is this job really right for me?”, “I really need some help with this!”, and so on. If so, you are seeking for intuitive guidance and perhaps receiving answers, yet are not really in the proper frame of mind to receive them, leaving you despairing and insensitive to the Replies you do receive.

Discovering the appropriate practices and settings with which to apply your questions and receive responses will profoundly affect the clarity of your asking and your sensitivity to the responses you receive in a direct and profound way. Learning the nature and form of questions that you are most attuned to is key, and refining such will optimize your intuitive potential. When you are more conscious of your questions, you invite greater focus and clarity, both to your current standing and perspectives, and to the guidance you invoke when you ask them.

The Intuition Zone program provides deep insight into the types of questions to ask when seeking intuitive guidance, with specific guidelines, including frames of reference, settings for Yes-No questions, open ended questions that evoke broader answers, what to avoid, and more, with specific examples. Click to learn more about Aine Belton’s Intuition Zone program.

Technorati Tags: aine belton intuition zone, ainebeltonintuitionzone, intuition zone, intuition zone review, intuitionzone, intuitionzonereview, intuitive guidance, intuitiveguidance

Many paths lead to Inner Peace, and though there are various reasons why individuals choose to take the journey within, we might all agree that the impetus, in part, includes a search for a deeper meaning to life and a longing to experience an unmoving and peaceful place from which to view and interpret the ever-changing world.

There’s so much talk these days about peace. There are plenty of negotiations going on in the name of peace and a number of peace summits planned for the future. There’s even been a “Road Map” for peace that’s been tossed about by various factions around the world. But, in spite of all the plans, and even with the cartographic assistance of a map, our world still has not “found” peace.

So, we might be asking ourselves these questions:  “Where can I find true peace? Is my peace contingent upon the opinions of those who hold world power? Could inner peace actually dwell in the hands of whomever is the most politically influential and/or financially powerful in any given moment? Or, could it be that I am looking for Peace in all the wrong places?”

Kipling wrote in his wonderful poem If: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs and blaming it on you…” It is such a wonderful statement of the potential power that dwells within each of us to take possession and control of our responses to life. He might have said, “If you can keep your peace when all about you are losing theirs…” whether they’re blaming it on you or their neighbor or a particular ethnic group or another country, then perhaps you’ve discovered where the real “Road Map” for peace ultimately leads…

When we observe nature, it is so much easier to see that Peace, true Peace, unconditional Peace flows through life — in, above, beneath, and as creation — the joyous vibration of life at sunrise and the rest and deep contentment when sunset falls. In Its primal and original state, Peace flows through every creature, large and small, unimpeded by opposition, undisturbed by conflict, and unregulated by result. Peace in Its pure state is Perfect Peace, a Center unmoved by analysis and consensus. It is a Peace that exceeds circumstance and condition; a Peace that is not contingent upon humanity’s personal conditions for Its existence.

Because Peace is ever-present, we don’t need to seek It, as if It were somewhere else. It isn’t necessary for us to set up outer conditions for Its appearance. Often outer conditions depend upon personal, political or ethnic demands, which are only transient mind sets in an ever-changing creation. All that is demanded of us, so to speak, is our recognition of the Presence of Peace. If we want to experience the harmonizing effect of Peace in all our affairs, if It is ever to manifest as the State of our personal experience or as the human condition at large, each of us must acknowledge Its Power and Presence, here and now, no matter what may be going on personally or in the world.

This is not a suggestion to look at life through rose-colored glasses. This is encouragement to reach deep within ourselves and bring forth the Pure Energy of Life the dwells at the center of our being. When people and events appear disharmonious, often, rather than our recognizing Peace as the only true Power and Presence in spite of appearances, we frequently attempt to change the behavior, opinions, and attitudes of others in order for “clear the way” for Peace to appear. Control, manipulation, coercion, and force become instruments of a peace that must be achieved rather than experienced. Recognition is the instrument of that Peace that already Is…that Peace that is already in you.

Throughout the ages, and in our world today, the human race has attempted to bring about peace through war and conflict — both sides seeking to overpower their enemy, convert their opposition, and control the situation in order to achieve “peace.” You might agree that the horrors humankind has carried out against itself in the name of God are only surpassed by the battles it continues to wage in the name of Peace. Though we personally may not agree with war and may feel that there are more spiritual ways to resolve social and cultural conflicts, we may unconsciously, or even self-righteously, hold the same points of view that beget war and violence. Many of us, in one way or another in our daily life engage, mentally and/or verbally, in personal battles of our own. When we bump up against the hardened assumptions of differing points of view, ideas that seem “foreign” to our own, we may not always recognize that Peace is the only Presence no matter the human opinion. Instead, we may perceive differences as a sign of disunion. We might seek personal peace of mind through our attempts to convince others of the rightness of our position or the correctness of our way of doing things. Or, perhaps, we might even try to achieve peace by suppressing our own true nature and sense of what is right in order to appease another, losing any chance of true peace in the process.

It is important for each of us to notice our patterns of belief. We can ask ourself: When something appears to go wrong, do I look for someone to blame before the situation can be resolved? Do I justify my temporary expressions of irritation, aggravation, and anger because of the behavior of another? Do I recognize Peace in every moment or do I look for a moment’s peace?

When we live our life in “reaction” to outer circumstances, it is easy to feel separate from others and from  our own true Center of Peace. We look out through eyes that are framed in what feels like an isolated self and look into a world where diversity frequently appears to deny unity. How often have we listened to the news, read a newspaper, or talked with a friend about the disharmony, violence, hate, and destruction in the world today and then shook our head with a verbal “tsk-tsk” to emphasize how different the world is from us? But, is it really possible for anyone to be completely different from the world when each one of us is a part of the world? The world that we see– the good-bad-beautiful-ugly-just-unjust — is us, personally and collectively. We affect the world through our thoughts, words, and actions.

There may be no boundaries to Peace, but our individual experience of Peace is dependent solely upon our own awareness of It. The more we agree with what we see “out there” — or attempt to separate our self from the world out of fear — the more susceptible we are to the subconscious persuasions of the human race…whether that human mindset has been hardened through generations of confirmation or is as fleeting and fickle as the next political election.

If we want to see Peace, we must choose to be Peace. We cannot allow ourselves to mindlessly accept the ideas of exterior, narrow, hostile, greedy, or self-important forces in the world, for such automaton acquiescence can pull us away from our own inviolate Center of Peace and may place us in harm’s way. If the subjective state of our thought creates our objective experience of the world (and many believe that it does), and if the subjective state of our thought is the sum total of our thinking and knowing, then we cannot afford beliefs, notions, concepts, and actions that are un-peaceful, that are engendered by fear,  and fueled by separation and disharmony, and then walk out into the world of our creation and expect to be safe. Our thoughts and words of doubt and fear, our anger, blame, judgment, and sense of separation from others, personally and globally, energized by the intensity of the feelings behind them, are as powerful as our silent longings and spoken professions of peace.

The Peace that we can claim as our innate “center,” the inner peace that we desire, is not a place we must get to, but rather a moment-to-moment state of being from which we can choose to live and from which we can view the world. Spiritual Peace, lasting Peace, the Peace that passes understanding, is not only our Center, but Its also the Circumference of all life.

Unconditional Peace requires nothing at all (not even a deep breath) for it to appear to us. It may be easier for us to feel peaceful when we turn away from the chaotic objects of creation and turn, with our eyes closed in meditative receptivity, to the Pure, Formless Peace we believe exists “somewhere.” But it is vital for us to remind our self that Peace IS — eyes open or closed, in our quiet centerings, in our silent meditations, when we speak our words in silent prayer, and when we speak our mind in the world. When we recognize that Peace IS ALWAYS — unchangeable and unfailing — we will feel It and express It no matter what, no matter where, because Peace is all there Is, and Peace is what we are.

Technorati Tags: inner healing, inner peace, spiritual living