Inspirational Comments From Facebook -- Daily Inspirations

For me, FaceBook has become a wonderful source of daily inspirations and spiritual Presence. I am very grateful to the wonderful people who share their personal experiences, strengths, and hopes – allowing me to listen to my God in their words …… and in my own responses to their words. My God is always speaking …. It is really helpful –blessings and gifts -- to have so many friends who are willing to be Their messengers….

I would like to share some of my experiences with you …..

Hope – or Not…..

Keli: “Hope is an extension of our Faith that God will fulfill his promises” ~ Givens ( From "The
Dopeless Hope Fiend")

Will: For me, hope can be a preoccupation with a mentally induced fantasy/delusion of what could happen .... like a child who believes in the myth of Santa Claus and is expecting a desirable outcome based on their fantasy .... a mental distraction .... loss of consciousness ….
Or hope can be the intuitive sense of okness, wellbeing and loving closeness that comes from a steadily ... improving "conscious contact with God" .... a peace that passes all understanding .... a joy unspeakable and full of wondrous Presence .... a hope that is not disappointing because Their love is being poured generously and steadily into our hearts ..... a spiritual awakening as a result of these Twelve Steps --- living spiritual principles of hope and healing.....
Where our brains stop thinking and "drinking" …..stops using some mood altering human actions –
here our hearts begin to experience .....Presence..... the ultimate spiritual "guarantee" ..... that all will well in this life ….. and in the hereafter ….



Can You?.......

Michael: “You must do the thing you cannot do.”~~Eleanor Roosevelt

Will: The problem is that we can't do what we cannot do ..... maybe that's why we need a God of our conscious contact and personal experience .... They restore us to an ability to do what THEY can do .... If we could "do it", we would not need Them .... what an incredible loss that would be .... In our weakness we are made strong in them …. we have closeness with them ..

The basis of human shame and spiritual illness is the message and belief that we can – and should – do things we cannot do. Others have held us accountable and responsible for perceptions, reactions, actions -- and outcomes -- that we could not control. I experience that my God looks not at my actions and outcomes but at my “heart” …. And Their perception of me – and others – is that we are special, good enough – in fact wonderful – and unconditionally loveable and worthy of being cared about by Them …. They reprogram my brain to see me and others through Their eyes and “mind”….

Simple … But Not Easy ….

Keli: A simple program ~ The program is simply sharing, working the Twelve Steps, attending meetings, and practicing the principles of the program.
Our complicated lives can be made a lot less complicated if we concentrate on a few simple things sharing our experience, strength, and hope with others, regular meeting attendance, and practicing the principles of the program in our daily lives.
By sharing our experience, strength, and hope with others, we provide a powerful example for newcomers to follow. The effort we put into helping others also helps keep self-centeredness, the core of our disease, at bay.
Many of us pick one group, a home group, whose meetings we attend faithfully. This regularity gives some routine to our lives, and lets others know where they can find us if they need us.
Practicing the Twelve Steps in our daily lives makes the difference between a balanced recovery and simply not using. The steps give us some much-needed guidance in managing our everyday affairs.
Yes, we are complex people. But Twelve Steps programs simplifies our lives, enabling us to live a life free from active dependence. Our lives can be filled with serenity and hope when we live by the guidance of the simple principles of our program.
Just for today: I will remember that, while I am a complex person, Twelve Steps is the simplest way for me to make my life less complicated.
Copyright © 1991-2010 by Narcotics Anonymous World Services, Inc


Will: I do a 12 Step Spiritual Maintenance group on Thursdays, and today we were sharing about this subject: the Twelve Steps program is simple but not easy. The reason for this is that the intellectual concepts and directions are mentally "simple" and easy to understand by the cerebral cortex part of the brain. But dependency, and addiction are not located the intellectual cerebral cortex part of the brain. It is located in the involuntary, non-cognitive primitive part of the brain. So we can literally know what to do that is healthy and right, and be totally incapable of doing it or of responding rationally to that knowledge.... Literally, the basics of recovery are intellectually simple --- but virtually impossible to practice .... by me .... That's why we start with Step One: we admitted (and experienced) that we were powerless -- helpless to override the perceptions and reactions of our wounded brains .... powerlessness and helplessness becomes the basis for and beginning of true spiritual experience -- conscious contact with God .... This is my experience, strength and hope ....


We Need to Lose Our Minds ……

Thinus: Sometimes you have to lose your mind before you come to your senses...

Seren: So strange, I was just thinking that. Kind of like "hitting bottom"?
Thinus: Yup that's it.
Seren: Not my favorite memory, but definitely the catalyst for grace.
Nurse Mary: yea and we must always remember our bottoms have a trap door!!
Bronwyn: So that's what is happening to me - and I have so much to look forward to - finding my senses and coming to them! yay! Can't wait!


Will: My experience: "hitting a bottom" was losing my mind .... otherwise, my thoughts would be still anesthetizing my feelings -- my " senses" ..... and I would be convinced that "I can and should handle ‘it’." .... "it's just not that bad" .... thinking is more mood altering than drinking or drugging .... Most people never really recover because they are never able to “lose their minds” ….. and experience the truths of our helplessness without steady, conscious interaction with our God ….

The Need to Fall Down to Look Up ….

Angie: "When you fall down, look around. You may discover something you couldn't see when you were standing up.".......................

Will: If I had never "fallen", I would never have "discovered" – or experienced consciously -- my God's loving Presence .... to grow in Their Presence, I must continue to “fall” ….. from my humanness….
If we are not careful, our brains will use our appearance of success with certain outcomes as proof that we can and should understand and control “our lives”…. The gifts of “failures” are awarenesses and conscious experiences that we are powerless … alone …



Theodore: Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing. Use the pain as fuel, as a reminder of your strength.” --Wilson(via Denise)


Will: My experience: to confront my "dark selves" can be like attacking a wounded and cornered animal ..... dangerous at best .... our dark selves are lost selves who were wounded by separations and abuse ... they need to be loved and nurtured into God's love light, and brought home to be restored to our truest Self .... they don't need anymore rejection and abuse ....
(As I journalled about my dark or shadow selves, I realized that these are parts of me that are the furtherest from conscious Presence with my God … the most wounded, terrorified, enraged – instinctively self protective …. They are not bad – but very, very hurt …. and abandoned ….)


Being Perfect ….

Loretta: The word "perfect" doesn't mean that we have to do everything just right and live without making a mistake. Thank God, b/c we can't to that! It means "devoted" ~ a heart dedicated, loyal and faithful to God. The Word tells us that God shows Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts are "perfect" toward Him (2 Chron.16:9)

Will: For me: "perfect" is an expression of the attitude of unconditional love and care -- and clarity of perception -- that God has toward us .... They do not see us as wrong or bad ... in Their eyes, we are "perfect" .... They would only like for us to stop abusing our selves with our shame, and self-abuse ..... Perfectionism is the state of being unable to accept that we are already perfect .... at least in Their eyes .... In our human eyes. we generally "suck", never good enough, always wrong and bad – in one way or another ..... Maybe being "restored to sanity" includes beginning to see our selves through Their eyes.... not through the painful separation of our diseases of humanness and dependency .... Conscious intimate contact with out God clears away the unhealed distortions of the past …
Maybe the closest to a mistake we can be is to perceive that we are mistakes.....

Shop today for Daily Inspirations. Click Here.
Daily Inspirations Jewelry and Gifts
Daily Inspirations Readings
Daily Inspirations Clothing, Daily Inspirations Music

Photography/graphics by W. Wass

Problems Are Gifts of Spiritual Enlightenment -- Daily Inspirations

There is no such thing as a problem
without a gift in its hands.

Richard Bach

My brain has two basic categories of life events: what it wants, and problems. It is programmed genetically, socially, and emotionally to avoid problems, and to pursue what it “wants” – to control outcomes. The “belief” seems to be that if everything in my life went as my brain “wanted”, we would be happy and ok.

Fortunately that is not true. If everything and everyone’s being the way I wanted was the meaning and answer to life, I would be severely short changed – and hopelessly lost.

In my experience, I don’t really know what I want – because I can get people and circumstances to be my way, and still be miserable. There is something else – there are “more” – and not more desirable outcomes.

Problems, to me, are reminders that I don’t have what I “want” – and problems are directions toward finding what I am really looking for. They remind me when I am not happy, so I can seek change. And they remind me which path to stay on toward spiritual enlightenment.

My only real problem in life is separation from my God’s higher Presence. When we get separated from each other, I begin to fear, and hurt, and fight what is.

Problems are problems because they bring my pain and fear into conscious experience. Problems are gifts of life – solutions – because they remind me to reconnect and stay connected to my God, to others, and to myself – to find the hope, love, and joy of spiritual enlightenment in conscious Presence.

We need to have “problems” today – undesirable and uncontrollable life events – so we can receive the spiritual healing gifts of spiritual enlightenment, and loving Presence.

Embrace the undesirable. Treat them with daily inspirations and life’s precious moments. They will bring us to spiritual enlightenment -- back to our precious selves.

Comments from Facebook:

Lesa : The times in my life that things have been "my way",I have been happy. The happiness wasn't in having what I thought I wanted but in feeling God cared enough about me to make me happy. Proof a higher power was there and active in my life. Were my desires actually God's will and so I was satisfied and happy when they manifested? I believe so. …Just thinking aloud...

Will: For me, the closest to happiness that "my way" has produced was distraction -- a loss of conscious contact with myself through mental thinking or obsessing about outcomes .... which my brain interprets as "happy"-producing because happiness is perceived as the absence of and relief from pain ..... ultimately it wears off, or I build a tolerance, ... See Moreand I am off in search of more outcomes -- like an addict or alcoholic would be off looking for more "stuff" to consume ..... For me, the conscious experience that my God cares for me has to be disconnected from outcomes .... material outcomes are my mood altering drugs and not expressions of their love and care..... Presence -- a conscious intimate connection beyond words --- although frequently present within the words of others ...... experience vs content .... "Proof" for our brains requires something that can be measured and perceived intellectually in units of perception ...... The proof of my God, for me, "passes all understanding" ..... and is very confusing to my brain .... the "standards of measurement" for spiritual Presence transcends the digital intelligence of my brain .... the whole becomes more than the sum of its parts...... it must be restored to a spiritual sanity that They alone can give…. They teach my brain to participate in the experience, and stop losing itself in thought …..

Shop today for Daily Inspirations. Click Here.
Daily Inspirations Jewelry and Gifts
Daily Inspirations Readings
Daily Inspirations Clothing, Daily Inspirations Music

Photography/graphics by W. Wass

Is Your Soul for Sale? Holiday Hazards and Daily Inspirations

This morning as I was journaling, I became aware of how I have been struggling with insecurities regarding my worth and value as a person in this material world -- especially during the Holidays. I realized that I have been struggling to find a human way to validate and certify myself as a person of value and purpose -- with fluctuating success.

Three years ago, I sold a business and ended up managing a very special doctor’s practice after an sudden change left the doctor without a group with which to practice. Both have become good news, but both involved massive changes and losses of external life reference points that humans use to identify and validate themselves.

About five years ago-- right after the Holidays -- my wife of eleven years died of cancer -- after two really horrendous and painful years -- more change and loss.

I am still managing this practice, and in August I started writing a blog that has really taken me deeper and deeper inside myself -- more and more self and God intimate.

Change -- the loss of life reference points -- has left me feeling vulnerable and uncertain about who I am and what I am meant to give to others. Change and losses disorient human beings -- especially when there are no clear or pressing problems off of which to “reflect” ourselves.

As I was discussing my awarenesses with a spiritual friend, I remembered movies and stories where persons would sell their soul to Satan in order to obtain certain outcomes that they wanted. I would never do that, but actually I did try to sell my soul -- not to Satan -- but to “Jesus”.

From before I was born, my family was very active in a very fundamentalist church. As a child I was very insecure, timid, never feeling good enough. In my experience, fundamentalist religion teaches that God has to do what you ask -- if you do what you are “supposed” to do. Years later I realize that this message implied -- or stated -- the offer to sell my soul to get what I wanted. Happiness would have been nice, love and acceptance would have been wonderful, but most of all I wanted relief -- to stop feeling so much feeling -- so much pain and fear.

So at eight years old I began to bargain with God to sell my soul -- I got “saved“. I began reading the Bible, praying, and became active in my church -- trying to be good enough to have Jesus purchase my soul -- take everything that was important to me, and give me relief.

I spent a lot of years and effort in this pursuit, and finally gave up about twenty years ago. Depression, and anxiety was ruling my life -- and I could find no peace.

Twenty years ago I discovered and began a spiritual journey through a different set of principles not rules -- spiritual not religious. From these principles and the people who shared similar life issues and challenges, I began to find a different life. I realized that my God is not interested in possessing my soul -- or me. They want my heart -- my love and presence within Their Love and Presence -- intimate closeness, companionship, and friendship. They have no conditions for Their love, care, and kindness. They are a Presence that exceeds all my human thought and understanding -- they can only be experienced -- they cannot be “known“ by my brain.

So what does this have to do with the Holidays?

Is your soul for sell? Are we selling parts of ourselves -- or all of ourselves -- our souls -- to be loved, accepted, cared about -- maybe just to not be abandoned, alone, forgotten? Are we consciously or unconsciously trying to meet someone else’s conditions and expectations, and in the process losing and selling ourselves? For how much would we sell our souls -- the beauty and grace we were created with -- for the hope of a different, seemingly better outcome?

The Holidays are a metaphor -- an experiential symbol -- for all of our lives and loves. If we can begin to find our God’s unconditionally loving and caring Presence, maybe we can begin to take a spiritual stand for our spiritual and personal freedom. Maybe we can begin to give our presence to others, and not remain the “slaves” of others’ obvious and hidden -- dark-- expectations and demands of others.

Progress is Perfection. Let’s start here. Let’s take as much of ourselves as we can off the market -- and give our deepest love and presence to those who can receive us this Holiday.

To those who have hearts that love, let them be loved -- joy pressed down and running over -- coming from our most innermost beings to others.

Shop today for Daily Inspirations. Click Here.
Daily Inspirations Jewelry and Gifts
Daily Inspirations Readings
Daily Inspirations Clothing, Daily Inspirations Music

Photography/graphics by W. Wass

Experience Life's Precious Moments
Precious MomentsPrecious Moments
> Precious Moments

True Love Can Be Dangerous Without Daily Inspirations and Spiritual Enlightenment

Conversation:
Person: Hi! What do you did you do for a living?
Other person: I was a CIA secret agent.
Person: Really? So who really shot President Kennedy?
Other person: I would tell you, but I would have to kill you.

I woke up one morning on the cruise – it was still dark – and I started my morning meditation. As I was breathing and “listening” to my God’s Presence, I overheard, in my mind, a conversation between a woman and her romantic partner. The woman had been asked if she could love – really love him. Her response was, “I would love you, but I would have to kill you!”

In this moment, I experienced a startling awareness. As there is “national security”, there is “personal security” – a security that genuine intimacy, interpersonal presence, and loving commitment jeopardizes more than anything else can. And the natural human response to genuine romantic, committed love is fear. And when this “love” exceeds the comfort level of the human brain, the brain will eventually create a resistance which will effectively destroy the other person within the relationship.

Every person, object, and situation in our lives does a combination of two opposite things:
1. First, it or they distract us from ourselves, and lower our consciousness. This is typically experienced as pleasure, relief, attraction, and some form of happiness.
2. Second, it or they make us remember forgotten parts of ourselves – elevate our consciousness – which is most typically scary, painful, and irritating. Our brain is programmed to resist such experiences and relationships, unless they are very distracting.

All relationships do some version of this. So we are unconsciously attracted to primarily distracting relationships, and unconsciously repelled by true intimacy, self disclosure, and “love” – on either side of the relationship. Opposites attract because opposites distract.

Intimacy and self consciousness are instinctively the most terrorifying experiences a human can have. And instinctively, these experiences are avoided by the brain. With increased consciousness the brain reaches neural energy levels above what is perceived as “safe” and acceptable.

Loving someone – really loving someone – is terrorifying. Intimacy literally means “into me see” – they and I will see parts of me that I have hidden from myself and others because of extreme shame – the results of abandonment and rejection.

There is much more to be said later about this truth, but for now, I want us to consider two important factors:
1. Ultimately, the quality of our lives – our perceptions and reactions within this human experience – will ultimately be determined by our capacity to love deeply and intimately. We may maintain a level of delusion that life is good because we live with massive dosages of distraction, but ultimately, we will find ourselves confronted with the emerging awareness that something is very wrong inside – something important is really missing in our lives.
2. Intimacy and deep love are not possible merely by making mental decisions to do so. The part of our brain that makes decisions has no real authority in this area. The “secret agent” inside our brains has been given an overriding authority over the operation of our brains’ perceptions and reactions. We are powerless to love deeply and intimately.

Therefore, the quality of our life is directly proportionate to our ability to love deeply. And we must have a higher means for this to be possible. We can only love as deeply as we are connected intimately to our higher Presence – God as we experience Him and Her.

This truth makes it so important to find daily inspirations, and to experience the spiritual enlightenment of God’s higher Presence in the precious moments of our lives. Only God’s higher Presence allows us to have the spiritual security – serenity – to love and be loved deeply, and not harm others – and ourselves -- in the process.

Shop today for Daily Inspirations. Click Here.
Daily Inspirations Jewelry and Gifts
Daily Inspirations Readings
Daily Inspirations Clothing, Daily Inspirations Music

Photography/graphics by W. Wass

Experience Life's Precious Moments
Precious MomentsPrecious Moments
> Precious Moments

Spiritual Enlightenment --How do we discover daily inspirations within inspiring life quotes? Part II

Let's start with this inspiring life quote. How do we experience these words as a door to increasing daily inspirations, and spiritual enlightenment.

Everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change.

So suffering must become love. That is the mystery.
Katherine Mansfield


“Everything in life” – I experience that everything in this room, every thought and reaction in my brain, every event that has occurred or is anticipated has God’s energy and meaning all in and through it. Nothing is wasted. And everything is personally meaningful by higher design.

“Everything in life that we really accept” – I experience acceptance as the insertion of higher Presence -- through daily inspirations -- into every thought, experience and event of my life. This provides the sense of meaning and purpose for “everything in life”

The opposite of acceptance, for me, is control. As I breathe and experience
Control, I experience separation and abandonment from my past, the expectation – within my brain’s programming – that this pain will continue. I experience a constriction of neural energy aimed instinctively at “controlling” the pending outcomes of my life.

Constriction of neural energy hurts – “suffering” – mentally, emotionally, physically, and socially. In the absence of Presence, my brain resists what is, and I suffer. The solution for me is acceptance -- the loving and caring Presence of my higher Power.

Everything in my life that I suffer must go through change. For me, daily inspirations and meditations – including inspiring life quotes -- have created filters of caring Presence through which the sewage of my past can be changed from pain to love. Love for me is the intimate and unconditional connection and participation with my higher Presence, others, and ultimately myself.

“This is the mystery.” This is an exciting sentence. I experience my life beginning to change without my understanding and intellect -- exceeding all the expectations that my brain can produce.

My child self calls this “magic”. There is a personal energy swirling around and entering my brain that is creating a better “story” – the exciting adventures and stories of my life. Everything is enormously unpredictable, and as I surrender to Presence, and listen to their voices, wonderful unexpected “things” happen – within my perceptions and reactions. And life is incredibly never the same.

Life and spiritual healing begins with suffering – because I am human. Life mysteriously arrives at spiritual enlightenment and loving Presence, through the practice of daily inspirations – the experience of inspiring life quotes – each moment, each breath of my day.

With each new day I put away the past

and discover the new beginnings I have been given.
Angela Wozniak

Daily Inspirations Jewelry and Gifts .
Daily Inspirations Readings
Daily Inspirational Clothing, Daily Inspiration Music

Photography/graphics by W. Wass

How Do Daily Inspirations and Spiritual Enlightenment Make Life Different ?

“A consciousness of God’s presence,

as One who loves you,
makes all life different.
The consciousness of God’s love
promotes the opening of your whole being to God.”
Twenty-Four Hours a Day

The normal human condition is one of constriction – closedness – to others, ourselves, and our higher Presence. It is a natural, and generally unconscious reaction to the fear and expectation of ultimately being abandoned – separated from others.

I have learned that there are certain symptoms that frequently remind me of my shame, and my fear of separation:
1. Worry – the mental preoccupation with outcomes related to any person, thing, or situation that catches my attention. My unresolved past attaches to my immediate present, and I live emotionally the neural energies of fear, trying to escape with desperate thought.
2. Anger – when I am irritated, my brain is avoiding shame and separation by bursts of neural energy, generally discharged toward people, things and situations that are not as I think I would like it to be. This is displaced energy, and not true responses.

As my consciousness rises, I become aware that my insides and outsides are tight, tense, and constricted. If it continues for any length of time, I will begin to experience physical symptoms of my illness.

Daily inspirations are about allowing our consciousness to be redirected by “God’s Presence” to an experience of God’s or our higher Presence’s unconditional adoration and affection for us. As we find and experience the cues that are in daily inspirations, we can experience an “opening of our whole being to God”, to ourselves, and to other human beings.

There are various blockages to this opening. One is the human desire or demand for guarantees. How can I know that when I allow higher Presence to open my being, that I will be safe, loved, and nurtured in the future? This is a question that ultimately daily inspirations must begin to “answer”.

“Understanding is the reward of faith.

Therefore seek not to understand that thou mightest believe,
but believe that thou mayest understand.”
Aurelius Augustinus

Faith and belief, in spiritual terms are not thoughts. Traditional religion, being thought based, tends to imply that faith and belief are done by thinking – which is with our brains. Unfortunately, that will not work. The part of the brain that thinks is very tiny. The part of the brain that feels fear and shame is massive. Thought will do little more than distract us from our human condition. Our brains are ultimately not where the spiritual “guarantees” of my life are written.

Daily inspirations teach us how to believe spiritually – to experience an intimate closeness with a Presence that the brain cannot comprehend. The result can be a spiritual enlightenment that transcends thought, and activates our heart to “know” without using our brains to do so. And suddenly there is a peace and confidence that defies and confound mental thought -- and I find my guarantees written on the intuitive tissue of my heart.

My experience is that it was divinely planned by my higher Presence, that I not be able to mentally comprehend the Plan for life – the rhyme and reason of my life. The only way I can know is through an ongoing intimate relationship with my higher Presence -- the goal and outcome of steady and consistent daily inspirations.

One of the barriers I experience is that my brain is rarely silent. It chatters – with details, observations, and projected explanations and expectations. I use daily inspirations to stop, breath, allow my mind to still, and then quietly listen to that “still small voice” of Presence.

Another barrier is “education” – trying to amass enough information mentally into my brain that I can understand and control my life. I have learned that spiritual education is a private matter – it has nothing to do with colleges or schools. Spiritual enlightenment comes from experiences which take my brain beyond my thoughts, into spiritual enlightenments that are self-changing – the rebirth of my lost selves into present Presence.

This spiritual enlightenment is a return to the child who we really are. To survive, we became adults – took responsibility for the uncontrollable, donned masks that hid our wretchedness, suppressed natural emotional experiences with intellectual thinking, and generally lost sight of the beautiful creatures we were created to be.


“Some of our feelings have been stored so long
that they have freezer burn.”
Melodie Beattie

We are using daily inspirations to be restored to who we are underneath all the fire and ice. We are beginning to have “breakthroughs” – more and more transformative experiences -- that are changing our very genetic spiritual structure back to our natural states.

Our higher Presence is reweaving the tapestries of our lives and we becoming beautiful and awesome – children and masters of God’s infinite and unconditional love and grace.

We are becoming truly amazing.

Daily Inspirations Jewelry and Gifts .
Daily Inspirations Readings
Daily Inspirational Clothing, Daily Inspiration Music

Photography/graphics by W. Wass