Voice of the Spirit

Most of us would agree that one of the main reasons we are here in our earthly journey is to learn to love ourselves.  It is safe to assume that we’ve all struggled with feeling good about who we are.  The difficulty in loving ourselves can occur through negative reinforcement in childhood, a failed marriage or relationship, dreams that didn’t work out, our physical appearance not being what we want it to be, not being successful in our careers or wealthy enough, the self esteem issues that we may have brought in from a previous lifetime, or any number of personal reasons that cause us pain.

Currently, the reoccurring theme of “love yourself” is ever present in countless self help books, new age philosophies, various forms of spirituality, and stated by therapists.  In practically every corner of our society, this theme is reinforced repeatedly.

Of course, we must all learn to love who we are.  However, what does that actually mean?  Are we supposed to love and accept all parts of ourselves and everything we do:  our good qualities, bad qualities, talents, strengths, warts, flaws and all?  Should unconditional love be a blanket license for us to validate every aspect of ourselves? 

First, your higher self

We don’t tend to see the difference between who we are versus what we do when trying to love ourselves.  It’s as if we feel that we should love, accept, celebrate, and even cherish absolutely everything about us.  This is the goal that many books and philosophies teach – for you to feel wonderful about you in every way imaginable!

However, as we learn to love ourselves, we must recognize that there is a huge difference between our higher self; as opposed to everything we do.  Our higher self is quite extraordinary.  This is the part of us that is eternally connected to divine mind.  Here, we are an utter masterpiece.  Our higher self is personified and projected through our special, unique, and irreplaceable set of talents, gifts, and positive qualities.  Only you can do what you have been sent here to do.  No one else can. 

 Our higher mind is our perfection — the part of ourselves that has never lived or died, has never known suffering, pain, struggle or failure.  To be created in the universal, supreme and eternal image; to be a direct mirror of the divine; this is the part of ourselves that can move mountains, feed the hungry, and heal the sick.

 When someone does charity work, performs selfless acts of kindness, and contributes anything positive to the world, their higher self is shining through.  It is also demonstrated by simply being a good person in the most basic sense.  When we observe a great painter, read wonderful works of literature, or hear a brilliant musician, those talents and gifts come from the higher self.

Janet is a musician who decided to perform music for people who are in hospice and near the end of their physical journey.  She attempts to use music to help center those who have life threatening illnesses, to help them prepare to transition into spirit gracefully and with peace.  This is Janet’s higher self shining through, where she offers her unique and irreplaceable talents in a positive way to others.  She fills a place in the world that only she can, and through building upon her talents, gifts, and one-of-a-kind qualities, she touches the world through her healing music.

Take a look at what your talents, gifts, and irreplaceable contributions to the collective are.  If you’re not sure, affirm the following:  Infinite intelligence reveals to me the genius of my higher self and shows me what I am divinely here to do!   Then, be prepared to be shown the perfect and divine plan of your life.

Remember that anything that comes from our higher self is worth learning to love and we should learn to do so unconditionally!  This strengthens our spiritual connection, and brings out the best in us. 

However, we tend to blur the lines between what is positive and what is negative about us, and don’t perceive the difference between our higher self, as opposed to our lower self.  So what exactly is our lower self, then, and how do we learn to distinguish between the two?

Second, your lower self

Our lower self is baser than our higher self, and is connected with lower physical reality, such as animal instincts.  Mastering our lower self is part of everyone’s spiritual and karmic journey in the physical world.  We will all need to learn to control such drives and desires in one lifetime or another.

I’m referring to thoughts, words, actions and choices that are negative, mean, dark, ugly, selfish, harmful and destructive to ourselves and others.  Thinking and speaking badly of others are qualities that most of us do every day.  Lying to people, manipulating, and cheating are commonplace, even in polite society.  To a much lesser degree, violence, abuse, murder and suicide also occur in everyday life.

Here we see the ego, lower emotions, selfishness, vanity, greed, arrogance, lack of consideration, and even psychopathic narcissism in action.  With these qualities which typically represent our lower self, we continue to create negative karma.

So what do we do with these energies of our lower self, which all of us possess in varying degrees?  Should we just put the qualities of both the lower self and higher self in a blender, so to speak, mix it up, and learn to love it all?  In reality, the lower self represents the very parts of ourselves that we should not validate, embrace, or learn to love.  

Joe is a man who is ruthlessly ambitious in his career, and is willing to step on anyone to get ahead.  He falsely befriends co workers to gain their confidence, and then uses their own vulnerabilities against them to advance his career.  One such instance happened with Paul, a nice, decent co worker who was higher up in the company than Joe.  Once the two men became friends, Joe observed Paul’s weaknesses, and then used them to seize his position.  Not only did Joe take what wasn’t his, he caused Paul to lose his job, which permanently devastated Paul’s life.

What Joe did certainly wasn’t great.  However, many of us would simply respond to his actions by saying, “Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do to get ahead in this world.”  This part of Joe’s energies: ruthlessness, going after what isn’t his, hurting people, destroying their careers and their lives, should not be loved by Joe, or even tolerated.  These qualities should be let absolutely let go of, and removed from his actions.

It’s the same with your body.  If you had a malignant tumor, how would you treat it?  Would you try to love and accept that tumor – even validate and embrace it?  Of course you wouldn’t.  You would remove it efficiently and permanently.  We should also view our negative energies in the same way.  This is part of our spiritual goal in learning to love ourselves – to remove all of our “bad qualities,” and purify ourselves to do our best to become as virgin snow – not a murky blend of the good, bad, and the ugly.

However, this is not what most of us attempt to do who are on a quest to love ourselves.  We often look at the very best and the absolute worst within us as being one and the same, and attempt to validate it all.  We excuse whatever we do because we’re just simply being ourselves.  Somehow, if it can be rationalized, who we are and what we do all becomes ok in our own minds. 

As time has passed, we now see people using the concept of loving themselves in more distorted, selfish, and narcissistic ways than ever before.  What may have started out as an attempt to have a healthy relationship with oneself has turned into something quite ugly, harmful and out of control.  How could something as seemingly wholesome and enriching turn into something that pronounces and champions the worst in us?  Where did this all come from in the first place, and how did we get here as a society? 

 Three factors of the Lower Self:

1) The birth of “me”

We now all see the phenomenon of everyone loving themselves and celebrating every aspect of who they are.  Therefore, we might assume that since it is this way today, it’s the way it’s always been.  However, there was a time where it wasn’t at all common within our society to be on a journey to love yourself, yet alone all parts of who you are.

 Decades ago, people were much less individualistic then they are today.  When history refers to the generation that fought in World War II as the greatest generation, they were referring to the fact that everyone came together for a common cause.  Self-sacrifice was the creed of that generation – not self-empowerment or being “me.”  In the post World War II era, people started to become more individualistic.  We can see this change crystallized in the social protests of the 1960’s, and the sexual liberation of the 1970’s.  By the 1980’s, everyone forgot about everyone else and got as much money as they could.  In the famed movie “Wall Street,” actor Michael Douglas (as the character Gordon Gecco) smugly stated, “Greed is good.”  Today, we see websites that cater to every single personal nuance, from people with specific sexual fetishes to many who blog all day long about what they had for dinner last night.

2) The Death of Manners and Polite Society

Through everyone now pronouncing their individuality more loudly, we have seen an erosion of manners and the death of polite society as we once knew it.  Through not caring to differentiate between their higher self and lower self, people have become meaner, far less considerate of others and ruder in everyday life.  A recent CNN poll revealed that over 80% of all polled thought that people are much ruder nowadays.  More shocking that that, though, is that 98% of those polled did not think they themselves were rude.

Manners are seen as something that is out of date, silly, and almost Victorian.  Terse emails, interrupting people, and looking out for number one have become today’s mottos.   How often do we hear people define their life philosophy and highest aspiration as, “I get what I want!”  It’s as if a person getting everything they want is now seen as the pinnacle of living life to the fullest, as opposed to trying to make the world a better place through being in it.

Even if people were more restrained in the past simply because it was the way of the world, manners caused all of us to behave better and be treated with more respect.  With polite society gone, people attack others, and we all get hurt.  Through the feeling of being a victim, we even feel more justified in being rude, ugly, and on the attack.  It all gets rationalized as, “I’m just protecting me!”  If we’re selfish, manipulative, and strike back at others, there’s a darn good reason.  We’ve been hurt too many times before, so we’re just standing up for ourselves.  “I’m just taking care of number one,” becomes the new mantra of “survival of the fittest.”

3) The False Empowerment Syndrome

As society has changed, coupled with the glut of self-help books, therapy, various forms of philosophy and spirituality, we now live in a world where people certainly feel empowered.  It’s not enough to just love ourselves anymore.  We’re taught to believe that being us is absolutely great; and that translates into anything and everything we think, say, and do.  As long as we’re not physically attacking someone without cause, most everything else is viewed as acceptable.  Interrupting others, rudeness, mean spirited comments, being inconsiderate, stepping on people to get ahead in this world and violating other’s rights to get what you want are all thought of as just the world we now live in.  If we get caught in a position where we might look bad, we can always find a way to make the end justify the means. 

Through false empowerment, people don’t stop and censor themselves – in fact, everyone has an opinion – about everything.  Worse than that, though, is that people now consider their opinions – on everything, to be valid.  Frequently, one’s opinions are hardly based on anything substantive or factual.  We hear people just spout off about whatever.   However, have they studied or researched what they’re speaking so confidently about?  Where does their information come from?  

It goes without saying that everyone has the right to say whatever they wish; but are all opinions equal?  Of course they’re not.  Would a doctor’s opinion on your health be equal to someone who has never studied medicine?  Most people just shoot their mouth off, without knowing what they’re talking about.  We see cable TV talk show hosts doing this daily.  The person watching the show feels like, “Hey, if he can say whatever he thinks, well then so can I!”  To study, research, and gain some substantive knowledge and awareness of what one bases their opinions on is rare today.  How common is it to hear someone say, “This is my opinion and I have the right to express myself any way I want!”  Just turn on cable television news shows where guests argue, shout over each other, and try to one-up everyone else around the clock.

Day by day, we here certain catch phrases which falsely empower us.  They are so commonplace in our current society, that we take these declarations for granted:    “I get what I want!”  “This is who I am!”  “I like and love everything about me!”  “If you love me, you’ll accept me exactly as I am, and won’t ever ask me to change!”  “I’m just being me!” “This is just the way I am!”  “If you don’t like it, oh well; too bad, so sad!” 

What do these statements all have in common?  They all take only one thing into consideration, which are the selfish needs of the person making the statement.  There is nothing about these proclamations that indicate care for others, consideration of how we impact on anyone else, or any semblance that everything in this universe is interconnected.  Here, we see the lower self exalted and enshrined, while our higher self is dwarfed and suffocated.

Remember, the lower self is addictive, and easy to fall into.  Isn’t it easier to try and do what you want and get what you want, then to step back and ask yourself how your choices and actions impact on others? 

We now see how the positive aspects of self-love have become polluted through both our higher self and lower self being the recipients of acknowledgment, acceptance, unconditional love, and validation.  With these lines completely blurred, the collective world greatly suffers as the overall behavior of people becomes empowered in a negative way.

So is it too late for each of us within our society to truly and clearly know the difference between their higher self and lower self when trying to make the journey to love themselves?   There certainly are solutions, but are they options most people care to look at, process, and ultimately implement?

The Solution – Gravity vs. Weightlessness

First, to solve this issue, each of us would have to want to sort it all out, which is not easy to do.  Isn’t it easier to just doing anything you want?  But even if that desire is there, how do we identify and release the qualities, patterns, behaviors, and attitudes of our lower self, in order to make such heavy negativity weightless?  Here are a few simple and easy tips to follow:

Be both loving to ourselves and loving to others.

If you are being loving to yourself, without being loving to others, you are being selfish.

If you’re loving to others without being loving to yourself, you’re giving too much away, and not being fair to yourself.

Often, people don’t care to reach out to others, and don’t want to be bothered either.  They believe that it’s good enough to just be neutral, detached, and co exist with the world in a non caring way.  We may not offer much to anyone, but if we’re not hurting others, it’s ok.  We stay out of other people’s way, and they need to stay out of ours.

Although being neutral is better than being negative, it is not good enough.  It is like an airplane that is taxing on the runway; it can’t taxi forever, as it needs to get off the ground.  Just like the plane is supposed to take off and rise above the clouds, we need to do the same with our lives.  We do this by building our reality upon the positive qualities of our higher self.  Here is a quick top ten list of thoughts, words, perspectives, and actions that will steer you in the right direction:

1. Be considerate of others
2. Be polite and have good manners
3. Let go of negative thoughts and words about others, (and also of yourself)
4. Remember that you are not separate – everything you do affects everything and everyone else
5. Don’t be a victim – victims always attack and feel falsely justified in doing so
6. Be kind in any way you can
7. Try to offer your special qualities, talents and gifts to the world
8. Don’t lie, manipulate, or behave rudely toward others
9. Apologize if and when you fall short
10. Be generous in all ways – remember, to give is to receive

Practice this top 10 list every day, as it will lighten the heaviness of your lower self.

 Remember, it is us who create the gravity when it comes to our lower self.  Through emotional and mental attachment, negative thoughts, words, actions and choices, we give it weight, and in turn, that really weighs us down.  If we choose to release our own negativity, there is nothing that can keep these old derelict qualities weighed down within us. 

As the negative qualities of our lower self become released, they can be carried off by the gentle winds high above the clouds, up and away where they return to their native nothingness.  By letting go, it is literally like turning a ten ton boulder on our backs into a feather – there is no more weight!  We have transcended gravity– through releasing the burden, the load, and the heaviness of our subjective negative qualities – and yes, we all have them.  It’s only us who can give them weight – and only us who can make them weightless.  Don’t defend yourself or try to be the victim.  Tell it like it is, and set yourself free!

When we build our journey on our higher self, nothing needs to be excused or rationalized!  It is all good – and it is all loveable. From that foundation, everything we are, think, say, and do – our choices, talents, gifts, spirituality, career, finances – as well as what we do with our bodies and sexuality all contributes to what is divine and magnificent in this world.  This is worth loving unconditionally!

Learning how to love ourselves the right way has always been about healing the darkness within – not embracing, enhancing, celebrating, validating, and building our lives on it as so many of us do!  As we discover the right way to love ourselves, we find it easy to do, if we only remember one simple guideline:  Let go of the negative qualities of the lower self, and learn to love what is naturally, inherently, eternally and already loveable about you – your higher self.

If you are interested in having a reading with Jim1537, click here.

Topic: Being Consistent and Unified
Goal: To be consistently positive and unified in who we are and all we do.

I am consistently positive in all that I think, say, and do, bringing goodness to everyone on my pathway!

If you are interested in having a reading with Jim1537, click here.

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How would you respond to the question, “What is the world’s biggest problem?”  It’s safe to say that one or more of the following list would be included in your answer:  the current economic crisis, global poverty, children who go to bed hungry every night, people without health insurance, untreated disease in poor countries, the environment, global warming, our political leaders, violence, murder, and war.  But does this list include the real problem, or merely the symptoms?  Just like when someone is sick, they are experiencing the symptoms and manifestations of the underlying health issue and disease, but may not know the root cause of what made them sick.

What if I told you that the world’s biggest problem is not on the above mentioned list at all…? 

It has to do with one simple thing; and that it is merely a matter of perception – our distorted, illusory human perception and all that builds upon that perception.  The biggest problem facing us is the illusion of separation – the illusion that we perceive anyone and everything in this world as being separate from ourselves. 

My name is Jim, and I am a male who lives in the United States.  Janel is a woman who lives in Paris, France.  We have never met each other in the physical world.  It is presumable that we both perceive ourselves as being separate from each other.  After all, she’s tens of thousands of miles away from me.  She lives over there, and I live over here. My pain is not her pain, and her joy has nothing to do with my joy

However, that is not true.  Janel and I are interconnected – just like the trees, plants, animals, and you are all interconnected.  In fact, the entire universe is connected.   There is no separation. Separation is an illusion.  This is not airy fairy spiritual talk – it is the truth.

Physics now proves that all atoms, molecules, and everything in this universe is interconnected.  What a child does in Siberia right now affects what a businessman is doing in New York.  Before, physics didn’t validate this truth that all is interconnected, which has been taught by great spiritual masters, yogis, and enlightened teachers for centuries.  But now, physics and spirituality agree on this principle that governs the universe.

In addition to physics, we can see everything as interconnected from a spiritual level.  Whether you refer to is as God, infinite intelligence, source, eternal creative principle, or divine love, “it” is one energy.  As everything originates from this source, everything that exists is connected to source.  Therefore, nothing is separate.  How could it be?  We, along with everything else are just extensions and projections of source.

Think of the divine flame that ignites all life, motion, and activity within this vast universe.  It is from within this eternal spark that everything originates.  That fire, which burns eternally, is at the core of everything: humans, animals, plants, atoms, molecules and inanimate objects.  This perpetual flame is the core which illuminates and connects all, like an endless cord that links everything together.  We can even see this connectedness when a child joins the dots of a picture by drawing connected lines.  When the lines are completed and connect all of the dots, that picture is analogous to the connectedness within the universe. 

Since our perception of being separate from everything is inherently illusory and false, what does this all mean on a practical day by day level?  How should it affect our choices and the way we treat each other?

We have all heard the golden rule stated in the Bible:  “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”  This is so important, because it defines the core of how we are literally the same as our neighbor.  What we do to another creates energy.  That energy leads to a consequence which we ourselves experience.  It doesn’t matter whether it comes back right now, or much later in physical time.  It all does comes back to us sooner or later.  As it’s clear that for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction, we know that what we do to others is what we do to ourselves.

Most of us probably agree that the golden rule of the Bible is a good sentiment, and to some degree, try to live up to this ideal.  However, if we fall short, we tend to not weigh ourselves down with too much guilt. 

The real reason we let ourselves off the hook so easily is because we see ourselves as separate from the person we hurt.  Even though we might feel somewhat bad for what we’ve done, we think that it is only them who is really suffering.  The bottom line is that we believe that our actions affect them – not us.  In a selfish “survival of the jungle” sort of way, we are still alive, safe, and ok.  Therefore, it is easy to disregard our sins.

If we take it a step further, many spiritual teachings explain that what we do comes back to us.  The law of karma applies to everyone, and sooner or later, all that we do indeed comes back to us.  Therefore, we need to be forever careful of our actions toward others.  What we sow, we shall reap!  This tends to give us pause for concern, but does it really force us to respect our neighbor to the degree that we should? 

Seeing karma clearly can be complicated and hard to measure.  If I steal from you on Monday, it is doubtful that you or someone else will steal from me on Tuesday.  Karma doesn’t usually come back to us right away, as in “instant karma.”  Therefore, our perception of karmic repercussion becomes convoluted.  Besides, we’re still alive, and seem to be ok.  Therefore, it’s still pretty easy to disregard the karmic repercussions we only somewhat fear.

If we look at what we do to others realistically, both scientifically and spiritually, we then begin to perceive what our actions truly do to us.  Since there is no separation between you and I, it isn’t just a matter of what I do to you will someday come back to me, (like the karma police are waiting around the corner and will get me down the road).  Whatever we’re doing to others is actually being done to ourselves in real time. 

If I stab you, I have just stabbed myself.  That is reality – not the illusion that you’re bleeding on the ground, and I have run away from the scene of the crime unscathed.  Since the reality is that we are all connected, for me to stab you, is something I am also doing to myself.  With the actual act comes the fact that something has just occurred.  It is permanently and forever registered in the spiritual planes of reality as a connected act.  It is not a matter of the illusion that we live by in our earthly lives; that we are separate from others.

Just because we don’t see it physically doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.  Since we live in the physical world of complete illusion, what we see with our own two eyes is also illusory.  We only see the world of physical matter, and don’t see beyond into the eternal reality that everything in the universe is joined.   With our physical eyesight, can we see and study the Akashic records, which record every single occurrence that has and will ever happen for eternity?  Do we see when and what our actions toward others does to us?  Can our eyes see how what we’ve done will ultimately affect us?  Of course not.  What we see is false and unreal.  It is based on the illusion of the physical plane, and since this plane is completely illusory, it would make sense that looking at it is the same.  If you look at an illusion, what you see is an illusion.

It’s simple to grasp if you keep in mind that the perception of anything being separate from anything else is false.  Interconnectedness of everything is real.   Think of a mother carrying a baby before the baby is born.  It would be hard to argue that the fetus and the mother are not interconnected.   Family members who live together certainly impact each other’s lives in obvious and dramatic ways.  That shows connectedness.  If a doctor helps someone to be healed, the connection is clear.  Look all around you!  From the trees whose roots keep growing deeper into the ground, connectedness is everywhere.  It’s just a matter of whether we wish to see it or not!

When a father abuses his son, he is abusing himself.  When a corporate executive steal millions of dollars from the shareholders of the company he works for, he is stealing from himself.  If you pick up a gun and blow someone’s head off, you’ve just taken yourself out of this world.  There is no way around that I am you, you are me, and everything is connected. 

Use your body as an analogy.  Do you see your arm as connected to your shoulder?  Of course you do.  So you could say that there are two body parts:  your arm and your shoulder, yet you see them as joined.  Think of two people:  you and your spouse.  What you do affects them, which in turn affects you.  Of course if you upset your spouse, you’ll probably hear about it right away.  In that moment, I’m sure you would realize that what you did affected them, which in turn affected you.  Therefore, the two of you are certainly connected.  Wouldn’t it be wiser for you to see the two of you as interconnected at all times, and not just in times that are dramatic?  This way, loving acts would be offered and received always.

If everyone realized the simple truth that all is connected, people would stop hurting, using, abusing, and killing.  There would be no more poverty, as no one wants to starve.  Greed would be gone, as no one wants to be ripped off and penniless.  The environment would be pure and clean, as who would want to pollute themselves and be a toxic wasteland?  Murder wouldn’t exist, as none of us want to be violently taken out of this world?   War would vanish.  Who would desire to engage in deadly combat with themselves?

Even if we just based our actions on the survival instinct we so strongly carry, we would no longer hurt others, or anything, as we would know that as we hurt others, we are damaging ourselves in real time.

Let us start healing ourselves.  That helps to heal the world.  Remind yourself that all that you do toward others is simply actions that you are doing to yourself – literally.  Ask the question, “Do I like what I’m doing to me?”  Not, do I like what I’m doing to others?  Remember, you’re really doing it to you!  If you always keep that in mind, you won’t do wrong by others, hurt the environment, or harm anything – none of us would. 

Of course, people want to make everything complicated, but the solution is simple.  If the foundation of a building is laid correctly and solidly, all that is built upon it will be solid also.  If we see ourselves as interconnected to everything, the foundation of our actions would be loving and respectful.  This way, in all situations, one and all would be safe, secure, nurtured, and treated with great dignity and respect.  With that truthful awareness, the problems of this world could begin to be healed. 

 If you are interested in having a reading with Jim1537, click here.

Topic: Being Prosperous During the Current Financial Crisis
Goal: To know that whatever is going on externally in the world, does not take away from our prosperity, which cannot be altered or diminished.

 Regardless of what is happening in the world, my financial supply is forever endless, immediate, and permanent!

If you are interested in having a reading with Jim1537, click here.