Category: 40 rules

“The path to the Truth is a labor of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet, challenge, and ultimately prevail over your nafs (false ego) with your heart. Knowing your false ego will lead you to the Knowledge of God.“

When I looked back at my ‘worst-case-scenarios’ I noticed how much anxiety I had always lived. It is a bit funny, because I never considered myself a worrier. Well, apparently, I am one. My anxieties are  mostly around feeling overwhelmed by the ‘burdens’ I place on myself. I don’t seem to understand the concept of saying ‘no’. 🙂 My anxiety is around ‘not being able to handle’ what comes. As I was sitting with my fears and worries, I recalled:  God is my Partner, I shall not want, and remembered how supported I am. 

I am still not able to create best-case-scenarios just yet but when I notice anxiety emerging, I can recall “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.” from Psalm 23

What have you experienced?

Please note, that God for me is not an old guy with white beard. The Divine, the Lord, God, the ‘Universe’, the Higher Self, Spirit I use interchangeably with the meaning of a higher Loving Entity that encompasses everything.

Read: DAY2, 40 Rules of Love, form Release to Embrace (click)

Introduction to 40 Days of Lent – From Release to Embrace

Rule 2

“The path to the Truth is a labor of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet, challenge, and ultimately prevail over your nafs (false ego) with your heart. Knowing your false ego will lead you to the Knowledge of God.“* 

Today, we are releasing Anxiety and embracing God’s Love for us. 

Our Lent Booklet invites us today to release our anxiety.  Our FalseEgo tries to convince us that we are weak and feeble so to keep us trapped in the games of the world. Our Nafs tell us that we are powerless and vulnerable to the unpredictability of the world. In God all is well. As we turn our attention into the ever-flowing Divine Love, the chaos of the world disappears and we find peace. From this place we emerge with guidance and endurance that we are supported and safeguarded.

As an experiment, let’s have a look at times when feelings of anxiety lied to us! I invite you to look at times in the past when you felt anxiety. Then write down the actual outcome of the situations that you were anxious about. What do you see? In my experience most of the problems I was anxious about never resulted in the worst-case scenarios. And in yours?

Today, I invite you to sit in the silence for at least 10 minutes and contemplate on Rule No2 and the quote below. Let me know how practicing releasing anxiety worked for you today. 

Do not worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made know to God. Philippians 4:6

Today we affirm: I envision only best-case scenarios.

*Rules are from ’40 Rules of Love’ by Novel by Elif Shafak. See more about the book here (click)  (Please note that ‘mind’ in the text is referred to the EgoMind or the Limited-Self)

Let’s walk this journey together!

Join me by reading the daily blogposts I create – SEE THEM HERE (CLICK) – and joining the UNITY CONNECTED FACEBOOK GROUP where I invite you to share about the contemplative questions.  (click on the buttons below to join)

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“How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame swelled inside us. If we see God as full of Love and compassion, so are we.“* 

I release my emotional reactions and heal form within.

As I was contemplating on Rule No1 and today’s Lent affirmation, I realized that I see God as my ultimate support system. I also noticed, how independent, I often think I am, and how untrue that notion is.  Every time, I get angry it is because I feel unsupported and overwhelmed. I try to protect myself by being angry with the world that seemingly puts so much pressure on me. It is not true, however. The world does nothing to me, it only reflects my own inner reality back to me. 

When I blame the world, I also blame God. Everything is God, even though it is hard to grasp the idea. God’s energy, Its being is waved across the entire tapestry of the universe and beyond. God is All and All is God.

As I was sitting in contemplation working on releasing my frustration and my anger, I realized how vulnerable I am. Without God’s ever flowing Presence and Loving for me, I am but a small mouse in a giant hamster-wheel, running in circles. 

As I was releasing my anger, I also started to let go of control. It scares me to know that I cannot control life. Life is gigantic! At the same time, it brings me peace to know that God can. God works though me, supports me with managing whatever shows up in front of me at every moment. I am not grated knowing what the future holds but I am granted the knowing that God is with me.

The God I see beyond my fear and anger is supportive and protective. 

Read: DAY1, 40 Rules of Love, form Release to Embrace (click)

Introduction to 40 Days of Lent – From Release to Embrace

Rule 1

“How we see God is a direct reflection of how we see ourselves. If God brings to mind mostly fear and blame, it means there is too much fear and blame swelled inside us. If we see God as full of Love and compassion, so are we.“* 

Today, we are releasing Anger and embracing God’s Love for us. 

Our Lent Booklet Invites us today – on Ash Wednesday – to release and let go of our anger. Our anger and our inability to accept and release what does not work for us or we do not agree with block our connection with the Divine. If we truly want to experience God’s Love and compassion, we need to be willing to release old ideas, old hurts that no longer serves us. In that we open ourselves to see a world of love and compassion reflected back to us. 

Today, I invite you to contemplate on the Rule No1 and the quote below. Let me know how practicing releasing anger worked for you today. 

Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. James 1:19 

Today we affirm:I release my emotional reactions and heal form within.

*Rules are from ’40 Rules of Love’ by Novel by Elif Shafak. See more about the book here (click)

Let’s walk this journey together!

Join me by reading the daily blogposts I create – SEE THEM HERE (CLICK) – and joining the UNITY CONNECTED FACEBOOK GROUP where I invite you to share about the contemplative questions.  (click on the buttons below to join)

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From Release to Embrace – An Introduction

What is it about? 

As I was looking for some material for contemplation for LENT this year, I decided to meditate and contemplate of some quotes from a book called ’40 Rules of Love’ by Elif Shafak. (Read more about the book below. )

Background 

At first, I thought that Shams Tabrizi wrote a book – which is very unlikely – and started to look for his ‘rulebook on Love’. Since he was a rather particular 13th century Sufi Mystic known for being the teacher of Rumi, I thought,  that he might have left some notes behind which served as a base for the book. Well, nothing like that. The book – 40 Rules of Love  – is a fictional story. It is a story of Love, on Shams and Rumi, but most importantly the book offers 40 so called ‘rules’ on how to live a Spirit-filled Life.

I have collected some information on Shams’ Life and his impact on Rumi’s Spiritual unfoldment that you can read HERE

As I was reading the book, I have fallen in love with both the story and the ‘rules.  I found them thoughtful and deep. Each one made me think. They reminded me how much we are attached to the phantasy of rom-coms that tell nothing about the Truth of Love. They do not make it real or even believable. But there is a kind of Love that is beyond the warm and fuzzy emotions and fantasies, a Love that Rumi and Shams wrote so beautifully about.  

We often spend countless hours trying to find love in another person or in the world but what we fail to see is that the Love we are so desperately searching for is right there within ourselves. It has always been there. We only need to discover it or uncover it, more like.

Personally, I think it is important to find the True meaning behind the word ‘LOVE’,  understand it and experience it as a Spiritual Quality inherently within us. 

I am going to walk this 40-day Lenten journey contemplating on the True meaning of Love, Divine Love, Spiritual Love for me by experimenting with the 40 rules and quotes from the Lent Booklet. Every day, between the 22nd of February and the 6th of April, I will post a ‘rule’ from the book ’40 rules of Love’ and an a release idea from the book ’40 days of Letting go – Lent 2023′ by Unity.org. Then, we will contemplate on it and share about it in this  Facebook Group.

Buy the LENT BOOKLET @this link (CLICK)

Let’s walk this journey together!

Join me by …

either reading the daily blogposts I create – SEE THEM HERE (CLICK) – or joining the FACEBOOK GROUP where I am going to share my writings and daily contemplative questions. I will also post a short video/audio material on the daily posts. (click on the buttons below to join)

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