Awakening the Soul

All poverty is first experienced in the soul.

This quotation from Sarah Ban Breathnach stopped me dead in my tracks when I first read it. I’ve always loved Sarah’s work since being given a copy of her Simple Abundance, a Day Book of Comfort and Joy when my heart and pride had been broken by the end of a marriage. She’s got it right in just the same way that the mystical interpretation of the tithing system has it right – first, inspiration, second, celebration and then everything else.

Sarah teaches that a gratitude journal is vital for life. Some of you will already be counting your blessings each day but it’s such an easy thing to forget to do – and yes, it does affect the soul if we are not grateful for what we have. Without appreciation, life is tougher than it need be.

Poverty is lack-consciousness. It has nothing whatsoever to do with how much money you actually have, it’s how you feel about your life. You can be dead broke but you won't be poor if you have prosperity consciousness in your soul. The difference is that you don't feel that horrible dragging inside - the fear of poverty. And if you are broke and can lift your spirits to nurture your soul, then the physical lack will ease automatically. It has to. You can't push poverty away; you can only inspire yourself to dissolve it.

Start small - baby steps always work. Try and be hugely inspired in one lump and you may well over-stretch yourself. It really doesn’t cost anything to go for a walk and enjoy the beauty of nature – wherever you are. And even the most litter-splattered park has moments of beauty in it which can lift the heart – if we make sure that we look for them.

When I was dead broke and working too hard and too long at a job that was just about making the rent, I discovered that all the pain and tension and debt from the dead relationship had lead me to get high blood pressure. It was all the pushing against that caused it - pushing against how I felt; against the job; against the fear. I didn’t want to go down the medical line of drugs and after a lot of research, I found that hawthorn tea really helped me. But the hawthorn leaves and berries from Culpepper were really expensive. So I asked the Universe to help me find some cheaper alternative.

As I was only just beginning to climb out of poverty consciousness, it took me a full three months of walking the dog before I realised that hawthorn leaves and berries were available to anyone practically anywhere…they just needed to be picked and dried and stored. I can remember just standing there on the pathway looking up at all this abundance that I had totally missed before and realising that I was finally on the real path to prosperity. I had asked for help and the filters of lack had been peeled away from my eyes.

It’s nine years now since I picked and dried my first hawthorn – and I still drink a cup of the tea each morning just for the pleasure of it.

Another day, when I was still broke and I’d been to see a friend who lived in the country, I picked the gleanings from a wheat field – the leftover heads of corn that hadn’t been picked up by a combine harvester. I ground them up and they made three loaves of bread. Admittedly it was heavy as a rock but it tasted delicious – and it healed my soul with the process of making it from scratch. It was an achievement; a creation. All we humans are children of a creator so we must also create in order to be happy - no matter how big or how small.

Only recently I thought I might benefit from some red clover but shied away from paying £18 or more for capsules from the chemist. I can afford it but I’m a Taurean and that just seemed an horrendous amount of money for a few tablets!

But I remembered the hawthorn tea and considered that the odds were pretty high that red clover grew wild somewhere fairly close. I found it on the very next dog walk; I’d just never looked before.

Incidentally I live in Birmingham, England, which is a big industrial city so it’s not (yet!) as though I walk out of my house into the countryside. But I find my treasures on the morning dog walks. Now that we live in the suburb of Moseley, most of those are along the River Cole and at Moseley Bog – the place that inspired J. R. R. Tolkien as a child. I didn’t even know it existed until I moved here and was looking for places to take the beagle.

And this last weekend, having been tempted by a wonderful sea trout at the local farmer’s market, I spent nearly all of Sunday cooking. Steaming fish with spring onion, ginger and chillies, making a (very odd!) salad with the vegetables I’ve grown in the garden despite the interesting summer weather this year, and baking a lemon meringue pie. So what? You say. Simple pleasures, say I. I wasn’t cooking for a dinner party, I was cooking for me – and primarily for the joy of it. My husband and Mum enjoyed the results but because I’d had such a wonderful time cooking the whole meal just glowed with love and gratitude.

So the message this month is “Look for the Simple Abundance.” Take joy in the little things; the birds, the plants, the sky – for the Brits among you, have you seen Jupiter in the night sky this last month? It’s incredible even to the naked eye!

Every day, simple gratitudes for a cup of tea, a lovely flower, a butterfly or a funny email even are the fuel for the soul. Your soul is your eternal self; it needs your attention and it needs your focus on joy. If you soul is filled with peace, gratitude and love then not even the objections of the ego-mind can stop the abundance flowing to you.

Microbes

From a book called Talks on Truth by the founder of Unity Church, Charles Fillmore:

So the fears, the doubts, the poverty, the sin, the sickness, the thousand erroneous states of consciousness have their microbes. These organisms whose office it is to make men miserable do their work to the very best of their ability. They are not responsible for their existence; they are the formed vehicles of thought, and are the servants of those who gave them life.

So it is not to the microbes that the wise regulator of affairs should look, but to those who are creating them and thereby bringing into existence discord and disease.

When we think God thoughts we will form only the beauties of nature and mankind, and there will no longer be anything in all this world that will cause a fear or a moment of pain.

When Charles Fillmore was writing 100 years ago, microbes were a brand new concept to science. He made the link between thoughts and physical sickness – and both he and his wife, Myrtle, healed themselves of apparently incurable diseases through changing their thought processes.

A while back, I thought I’d mix Charles Fillmore’s ideas with one from the Abraham-Hicks book ‘Ask and It is Given’ (Hay House). The idea was to try and dissolve old, painful microbes (in their thousands if not millions) that still infested my mind and came up at difficult times. The idea would be the invention of new God-microbes. By which I mean very, very tiny and gentle changes of mind – not even amounting to affirmations.

While denial and affirmation are very, very powerful, they can sometimes set up powerful resistance from our egos. So I’ve spent the last four weeks changing my thoughts by microscopic amounts – gentling it rather than commanding it.

Having lived through several bad bouts of fear – death of first husband, emigration that went very wrong, divorce, redundancy and 11 house moves in five years (yada, yada, yada!), I did have a strong echo of fear in the depths of my mind. Horrible microbes that tended to re-infect clearer thoughts.

I’ve worked this for 30 days together with going into the silence every day in a regular meditation before starting work. In the prayer before the first meditation I asked why I found negative thoughts so hard to banish for good. The answer came in an image of my fridge – in that on the surface it looks okay but it hasn’t had a thorough, deep cleanse for months so that underneath the apparent cleanliness are dirt microbes. Ditto the rest of the house. Oh bother!

The best way to cleanse most things is long, gentle soaking. So I have spent the days soaking my internal microbes with a very simple statement from the Abraham book: ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if…’ and spare hours cleaning the house too…

The ‘wouldn’t it be nice’ phrase sounds really wimpy but that’s just the point. It stirs up absolutely no reaction from my ego because it can’t disagree and it changes every negative impulse microbe by microbe.

Instead of jumping to a radical new thought from a negative old one, I can shift Universes slowly and steadily without out-facing myself at any point. Even more importantly, I ALLOW the anger, depression, overwhelmed feeling by acknowledging it.

Example:

Source thought: I’m depressed and overwhelmed:

Microbe healing:

Wouldn’t it be nice if I didn’t feel like this?
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could be feeling a bit better?
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could actually do something about it?
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could think of something positive?
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could have something nice for my breakfast?
Wouldn’t it be nice if the first phone call of the day was a really prosperous one?
Wouldn’t it be nice if the day worked out really well?
Wouldn’t it be nice if I ended up feeling very positive?
Wouldn’t it be nice if that original feeling actually meant it was a brilliant day?

I really worked. Within four days I was spotting negative microbes and applying this very gentle positive cleansing. Once I had spent a minute or so on the ‘wouldn’t it be nices’ I could move into a positive affirmation clearly and powerfully.

It even worked with the night fears (at that time we had just won a huge contract to publish the C. S. Lewis Narnia books in the Russian language worldwide and had no knowledge of Russian!). From ‘we can’t do this,’ came ‘wouldn’t it be nice if it all worked out really easily? Wouldn’t it be nice if all the help we need now would come quickly?’ and so on until ideas (and help) began to come.

And not only did we swiftly find Russian and American distributors but we did the work right on schedule.

It also helped when I got a communication from a British Church group who had offered me work in outreach/marketing as well as running prosperity seminars - and who then decided to change their minds.

Wouldn’t it be nice if I wasn’t cross (!)
Wouldn’t it be nice if this meant something better was coming for me?
Wouldn’t it be nice if they were right – and this paved the way for a better future for them too?
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could actually see that!
Wouldn’t it be nice if none of this mattered anyway and I knew it was all working out in Divine Order?

And then I could go straight into the affirmation: “I have wonderful work, in a wonderful way. I give wonderful service for wonderful pay.”

Almost immediately, another group – which is closer to my home invited me to do a day’s workshop on Exodus, the Metaphysics of the Bible and, when I’d done that, asked me to lead their Christmas candlelight service. Marvellous!

And another group entirely offered to set up a workshop for me in Shropshire. All because I allowed the crossness and transformed it slowly into something more positive.

So I recommend it as an exercise - to cleanse the microbes in your mind with ‘Wouldn’t it be nice if…?’ Here are some suggestions.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Christmas was fun this year?
Wouldn’t it be nice if I were earning more money?
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could love someone who loved me?
Wouldn’t it be nice if this prosperity stuff really worked? (!)
Wouldn’t it be nice if I found the perfect work?
Wouldn’t it be nice if I had an enjoyable day today?
Wouldn’t it be nice if my best friend phoned?
Wouldn’t it be nice if the next ‘you’ve won the lottery’ email was genuine instead of a scam!
Wouldn’t it be nice to feel happy?
Wouldn’t it be nice to ….. over to you.

Resonance

I love the word ‘resonance.’ It’s alliterative: rezzzzzonance! And it describes so well how the Law of Attraction works. As the Abraham teachings say "That which is like unto itself is drawn." So when we resonate with what we want, then our vibration is identical to the vibration of its reality in our life – and it must come.

But vibration is as precise as the keys on a piano and you know how a piece of music can grate when there is just one note wrong. So it’s really important to try and raise our vibrations as often as we can and for as long as we can.

A lot of the time we experience the "switching the kettle off just before it boils" syndrome which means that we think of something we want; affirm for it and believe that it’s on its way so much that we even get goosebumps.

But two or three days later, when it hasn’t arrived, we wonder why – and we switch off that vibrational kettle of manifestation with the simple noticing that what we wanted hasn’t arrived. And every other day when it hasn’t arrived, that thought achieves more power and the kettle gets turned off earlier and earlier.

Another analogy is a situation to which I am slightly prone – I’ll plant some seeds in a pot and then, if they don’t come up as fast as I think they should, I’ll keep checking on them and disturbing the earth and maybe even digging them up to see what’s going on.

In a nutshell you can’t resonate with happiness and wealth when you’re wondering why it hasn’t come yet. Tough call? Certainly but it leads to the ultimate quest in all Prosperity Consciousness – to be so happy in the present moment that you feel as though it (whatever it may be) has already come. You are so happy that you don’t even mind one way or another because you are simply happy. And of course, when you are so happy, prosperity comes.

Often, one of the simple helpers here is to make a small change in the day’s routine or your habitual clothing – dress or act as you will when the desired outcome is already here. If you are looking for love, then float down the High Street with a beautific smile in your sexiest clothes as though you were just coming away from a romantic tryst. If you want to travel abroad, have your passport, sunshine clothes and holiday insurance piled up ready on the dressing table – oh, and get that suitcase down.

A funny thing has just happened – I’ve just this minute had a telephone call from a company specialising in oveseas conveyancing. About a year ago I registered on a website which shows houses for sale in Italy as Peter and I have been thinking about getting a holiday home. And suddenly, out of the blue, as I’m writing this, someone who would do all the legal work and help us find a place shows up.

Yes, there was a temptation to say "no, not yet" but that would have been switching my kettle off. We have been thinking of taking a quick flight out to Pisa to take a first look at what’s available. I think I’d better get onto the internet!

Can you see how it works? Move forwards with the impulse. If you want the extra money start looking at what you want to do with it; check out your priorities and plan your purchases. And then visualise yourself already with them. If that little "but it’s not here there" bug comes along, hit it with a mental frying pan and say "that’s only because of you!"

Then have some more fun visualising and planning. If you make that part of it the focus of everything – having fun NOW – then it’s much easier.

Oh – please don’t put any negative energy into China and Tibet! There’s a rush of attention on the Tibetan issue because of the Olympic games. Far better to visualise peace and happiness in both countries than to complain. It’s fairly simple to visualise a free Tibet and a happy China! Feels better too.

Speaking of which – if you want to visualise for World Peace each full moon, contact the Rising Phoenix Organisation . They have a free downloadable peace meditation which all the supporters of that site do every full moon. Always better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Remember that you can now see me on YouTube

And check out my books on Amazon:

The Scrawny Old Cow.

This old legend was sent to me by my friend Michael Wetzler in response to one of my prosperity mail-outs.

An old Jewish man and his wife lived in the country near the time of the great Jewish holy man, the Baal Shem Tov. They were very poor, and all they had was a scrawny old cow. They accepted the life they felt that they had been given.

One day, the old man met the Baal Shem Tov, who had come to their area. The Baal Shem was with a few of his advisors, and asked the man if he could come for a meal that evening. The man was honoured and went back to his wife, but they were desparate they did not know how they could afford to feed the assembled company. The man knew the only thing he could do was sell the scrawny cow. So that night there was a sumptuous feast for the Baal Shem and
his entourage.

They ate the couple out of house and home, and then left.

After they had left the wife acknowledged that now they were in an even worse state...the husband was desperate. He did not know what to do, so went out into the forest, and prayed with all his might for all the things that they had never had ... At that moment he heard a noise and he saw an old man lying and groaning on the ground. He went to help, and the man looking up at him, saw a loving kind face, and was grateful. He told his helper that he was dying, but the old Jewish man said no, all he needed was a little support and comfort and he would be well. As he lay there the man told the story of how he had lived and made much money, and now all his family wanted him for was the money, and they didn't care. He was pleased because he had now buried it all, and they could not get at it.

Then he put his hand in his pocket, saying he wanted to repay the kindness and warm heart of the old Jewish man ... and as he did so, he died. However he had removed a slip from his pocket which turned out to be the map to the buried treasure!

A year later the Baal Shem tov and his retinue passed the Old Jewish man and his wife who were driving in a stately carriage, and looking as if they had no care in the world.

The students asked the Baal Shem Tov, amazed, how that poor old man with nothing could suddenly be so prosperous.

The Baal Shem Tov smiled and replied: "Before we came, the man and his wife made do with what they had. They never asked for more. They never thought they could have more. They just had and lived with the scrawny old cow. We had to help them get rid of the scrawny old cow, so that the old man could really pray and ask for what he needed.

"When HaShem [the Lord] heard the depth of his prayers, he was ready to respond, and so he did."

There are two important points to the story - firstly, what is your scrawny old cow? What is it that you hold onto for security - because without it you fear you would have nothing? If you are seeking proseperity, there will be something. I found four scrawny old cows in my life thanks to Michael's sending me the story - and three of them have already gone. It was quite scary but, as one of them was a means of making a living for me (but which I had stopped enjoying doing), it made me ASK for what I do want. I hadn't done so in that area before because I didn't have the time or the ability to travel - because I had to attend to my scrawny old cow!

Getting rid of this particular 'cow' had some guilt feelings attached because it was something that serves others and there's the slight 'you're letting people down' syndrome. But you know what? That's a scrawny old cow too. And guess what? Someone else who will truly enjoy the work has already jumped at the opportunity to take my place!

The other thing is to note that the old man and his wife didn't have any trouble in accepting the treasure! Jewish people can teach us a lot about attitudes to money - they don't have the spirituality-poverty consciousness that other faiths have developed. If the idea of keeping the treasure makes you feel uncomfortable it's because of an inherent feeling of a lack of self-worth which is worth examining.

Of course it's wonderful to be generous and give to others but think of it like this: You have a car and you want to give other people lifts to places - that's great. But you must fuel, service, maintain, clean and take general care of that car otherwise the lifts you offer will be uncomfortable, ineffective and unsuccessful - they won't help others at all. And if you have a lovely, elegant, powerful car in full working order (which I do, thank God!) then not only can you offer great lifts but you can inspire other people to learn prosperity consciousness - and they too can teach it on.