10/18/14 Coming to soundness of mind…
Today’s application is to apply the principle of soundness of mind… This is achieved by having an open mind. It is important to know what that means in the context of coming to believe in a Power-Greater-Than-Any-Human-Power. The term “power greater than myself” just didn’t seem to resonate as well with me as does a Power-Greater-Than-Any-Human-Power. This term, we know, leads to that word “GOD” that so many of us just can’t quite get our heads wrapped around and what it means: GOD… I found a great way to start to get to know what that word needed to mean to me… That way has been expressed in three words: Omnipresent, Omniscient, and Omnipotent… These words will be referred to as the Three O’s…
I don’t need to know all the specifics to begin… All I need is to open my mind to something other than me… With the idea that one day I hope to know this Power in a very intimate way. So, to begin, I had to learn that my mind is always Self-Talking, talking to me in my mind, in a very negative way, or Negative Self-Talking. Now I want to turn this into Negative Self-Talking into talking to something positive and powerful, greater than me. So I really am not going to do anything different from what I have been doing all my life, which is carrying on a dialogue within me, except that now I direct that talk to what I am learning to call “God”… But this God is a God that has no reference to any concept of God I have ever had… I must reinvent my concept of what I think is God… My tools are the three O’s…
As I go through the day, instead of talking to me, I talk to something other than me…
Pretty much in the beginning I just invited that Power into my mind as much as I could… Consciously reminding myself to talk to this Power, or God. I also made the decision to ask this Power into my life when I felt fear… This was my first trigger… I use these types of triggers to keep an active conscious contact with My God, a God I am coming to believe in… Triggers are important. The more triggers, the more contact and the more soundness of mind… A trigger is something I use to remind me to reach out for God… I had to get creative and find things that happen throughout the day that would remind me to talk to God… Like when I drive in the car, I put on some quiet music, or maybe none at all, but I use that time to talk to God… My words to this Power were simple at the beginning and honest… Simple like: “Can you be with me, now? Can you show me how to feel you?” I would ask for help from this Power when I got tied up during the day… Here is where my greatest realizations began to take place.
Two things happened when I began to talk to this Power-Greater-Than-Any-Human-Power instead of myself… The first thing I realized is how I was in trouble a lot more than I would have even guessed! The only way I could know that is to reach out for something other than me when I was in trouble. It was at this time I realized what the wise meant when they said, “Of myself I am nothing, the Father doeth the works.” It became apparent quite quickly, even instantly, that when I talk to God I have soundness of mind… My mind goes quiet. The race stops. The second thing I came to understand is my mind goes in the gutter all the time with Negative Self-Talk… The dialogue in my head became clearer and clearer and then louder and louder…. I, by myself, have a very fault-finding mind… I seem to want to find fault automatically with people and places… I am sure this is because I never considered what the price was for these choices and the price is quite clear today: I get miserable… Then out of misery I do it even more…
Don’t panic when your mind goes into the gutter with fault-finding, negativity because you start to see how much your mind not only attacks the world but also attacks you! That is another price we pay: the way we think of others is the way we think towards ourselves When you start to realize how much trouble is in your mind, it means you’re getting better and you’re just becoming aware of what has happened for a long time… And therein lies your freedom.
Awareness is the first step toward true change, and true change comes from connecting to a Power-Greater-Than-Any-Human-Power.
So be happy when you try this and enjoy the freedom and the great gift of coming to believe in a Power-Greater-Than-Any-Human-Power.
K.C.
The 3 “O’s”….Soundnes of mind. Thank you KC for a perfect application today.