A Course in Miracles Experimental (by Pam Grout) Day 172

The Universe created everything out of a need to share love.

We’re just evidence of that abiding love.

If what I’m feeling today isn’t in tune with that ideal of love, abundance and sharing of every good thing, then I need to take Jesus’ advice and turn my cheek.

Now, that’s not to say that I have to stand in place and get beaten up out of a bizarre need to prove some point.

I need to turn my face away from that negativity and engage my feet and brain to go to a better place.  I’m needing to move my eyes away from that darkness and embrace the happiness and light that are my birthright.

When I look at the light, I lose the ability to even see the shadow.  Light always overcomes the darkness.

Turn your cheek!  Aim your whole self at the light, and leave the darkness behind you!

And have a truly wonderful day today!

Photo by jplenio, courtesy of Pixabay
With Grace and Gratitude, 

LeslieAnne

A Course in Miracles Experimental (by Pam Grout) Day 171

Everything we are and everything we experience is part of the Divine plan.

Every little thing that we do or say ripples through the Universe and affects each person and being.

Think about it:  If you wake up and your back hurts (like mine does most days) it’s easy to react to that by grouching at your partner or your child.  When you do that, you’ve given away your innate power to overcome the circumstance and pushed something negative into their path.

Does that make your back feel better?  It sure doesn’t help mine!  

If I instead relegate the ache to a lower level in my mind, and focus instead on the fact that I’m still mobile and active and have important work to accomplish today, I find that it’s not that important if I have some pain.  In fact, this pain forces me to look away and reminds me that there is work to do. I really have to bring my creative game up a level to get past it.

The pain isn’t the real issue.  My reaction to it, is.

How will you respond to your challenges today?  Will you grab hold of your Divinity with both hands and make something positive?  Let’s both get our and find our wave!

Photo by Sean O, courtesy of Unsplash

With Grace and Gratitude, 

LeslieAnne

A Course in Miracles Experiment (by Pam Grout) Day 170

Have you thought lately about how your beliefs are limiting you?  Here’s a common example:

Do you have the basic idea that if you work hard, save money and build up a good retirement fund that you’re doing well?

I’m not arguing whether it’s true or not, just asking.  That’s certainly what was drummed into my head when I was growing up.

What if we each took that idea and turned it upside down and inside out?

What if you and I spent all our time trying to follow our innate passion, trying to make a difference in the world?

Instead of working at enriching ourselves then parking in front of the TV, what if everyone decided to go next door today and do something nice or helpful for a neighbor?  What if everyone did this every day?

Ten minutes could change your view of your neighbor, yourself, and your life.  Ten minutes could start a chain reaction that could easily change lives all over the world.

We can change ourselves.  We can change the world.  That’s the bottom line.  We, you and I, CAN change the world.  We don’t need to wait for it to come, although come it will.  Like the seasons, change is part of life.  

Let’s go to it!

Photo by Jeremy Thomas, courtesy of Unsplash 

With Grace and Gratitude, 

LeslieAnne

A Course in Miracles Experiment (by Pam Grout) Day 169

What do you believe about the abundance of resources?

Do you believe deep down, that there’s only so much food, or money, or shelter, and that it’s not enough for everyone to have plenty?

I still remember my High School science teacher telling us that within 20 years, we wouldn’t be able to produce enough food to feed all the people on the planet.

Forty years later, we still have plenty of food, and still can’t seem to get it to everyone.

The issue is not a lack of abundance.

The issue is whether we believe we can make something happen, and then whether we get off our behinds and act on that belief.

With belief in ourselves comes a willingness to engage in creative thinking, an ability to entertain possibilities.

If you deny the possibility of something ever happening, you push it away, and fulfill your own prophecy.

I don’t honestly know if what I write here will ever change anyone else’s mind about anything.  But I do know that what I’m writing (and thinking) is changing my mind, and that’s what this is about.

If I can help you find your dream and make it happen, that’s definitely a BIG plus.  But my mind is my responsibility, and you have to take care of yours.  I can almost feel my mind stretching a little bit each day, making room for an infinite variety of possibilities.

I do hope you’re along for the ride!

Have a fabulous day today!

Photo by Raphael Rychetsky, courtesy of Unsplash 

With Grace and Gratitude,

LeslieAnne

A Course in Miracles Experiment (by Pam Grout) Day 168

Claim your blessings today.

Take 15 minutes today to mentally experience all the riches in the Universe, and send those thoughts out into the ether.

The idea of the “gift economy” states that the more I give away, the more I receive.  If I can give everything away, I will be overwhelmingly gifted in return.

By giving, I acknowledge that it’s not really “mine” anyway, and I make room for even more to come.

By giving, I claim the right to receive.

Quantum physics tells us that thoughts have the power to change the physical world.  We change the world around us just by observing it.  If we contribute to the positive, more positive things will be attracted to us.

What will you give today?  And what will you receive?

Photo by Jonathan Sollender, courtesy of Unsplash
With Grace and Gratitude, 

LeslieAnne

A Course in Miracles Experiment (by Pam Grout) Day 167

Death is not the enemy.

Death is an illusion that we use to “protect” ourselves from the fact that our physical being is a temporary shell.

Like the little hermit crab, we need to continue growing, and as we do, we outgrow the shell we’ve borrowed for the present.

Any form of negativity slows down our growth, our expansion into new realms of joy, peace, prosperity.

Anxiety, sorrow, suffering, even the smallest discomfort – all these give power away to the whole illusion that death is real.

Ecology teaches us that death is a part of life, not its opposite.  Death is just a transfer of energy from one state of being to another.  Every tree that burns in a fire is converted into nutrients for the next generation of trees. Every blade of grass eaten by a horse, a rabbit, a cow, is converted into manure that enriches the soil for the plants that remain.

Just because we can’t see our loved ones on this plane of existence, does not mean they’re “gone”.  We just have to open our minds to let in the joy and happiness they’re experiencing now.

Don’t let negativity take away your life!

Keep growing, and get ready to trade in the shell you’re using now for a larger one.  And prepare yourself for the day when you no longer need that shell for protection!

Photo by Amed Sobah, courtesy of Unsplash
With Grace and Gratitude, 

LeslieAnne

Check out “My Hermit Crab Journal” and learn more about these fascinating apartment-friendly pets! Available today at https://bit.ly/HermitCrabFun

A Course in Miracles Experiment (by Pam Grout) Day 166

What gifts surround me, that I overlook?

What blessings do I discount each day, taking them for granted?

How often do I give thanks?

I know I should spend every waking moment in gratitude.  How often do I actually succeed?

Not nearly often enough!  Unfortunately, I get sidetracked each day by the tiny aggravations and irritations of the average working day.

In order to move on, though, and become better, I have to constantly remind myself of all those things that I do take for granted.

I have so much!  My husband, my son, our home.  I’ve got a cat who’s been in the family for 13 years!  She’s definitely a trial sometimes, but she’s very precious.

I’ve got 2 sugar gliders who crab at me when I wake them up for a grasshopper treat.  I’ve got finches who beep constantly if their food or water is getting low.  I’ve got a couple of bunnies in our springhouse who put their heads down to get petted, when I feed and water them.  They get to run on the floor when I’m working on my rowing machine, and they hop, run and slide around as fast as they can go.

I’m blessed to have work that’s unlikely to be downsized, and my husband’s job is the same.

Life is so good.

Let’s celebrate all the gifts we’re given today!

Photo by Luca Bravo, courtesy of Unsplash

With Grace and Gratitude,

LeslieAnne

A Course in Miracles Experiment (by Pam Grout) Day 165

Body, mind and soul.

Everything that I am is deeply connected, inextricably bound together in these three aspects of myself.

If I exercise my body, it gets stronger and more resilient. I can walk, climb, or swim more easily.  My blood pressure drops and my weight stabilizes.

If I exercise my mind, I learn and understand more.  I find out things about the world around me that can change my perceptions, and I see more clearly the causes of events and the lines that tie all things into a web of life.

If I exercise my soul, I become more loving, more compassionate towards myself and others.  I take events less personally, and gain flexibility in my thinking.  I begin to understand that the universe doesn’t revolve around me, and that my place in it may be small.

It’s a lot of work!

The end result, though, is that I am gaining ground, every day coming a bit closer to that ideal “me” that I need to be, in order to accomplish whatever it is that the Divine has for me to do.

I don’t get as far as I’d like to, each day.  I don’t always feel like I’ve even made any progress.  But I have to try, otherwise, what’s the point?

Do you struggle every day to learn, to grow, to become?

Keep up the good work!  Have a wonderful day today!

Photo by Alex Siale, courtesy of Unsplash
With Grace and Gratitude, 

LeslieAnne

A Course in Miracles Experiment (by Pam Grout) Day 164

“All the great empires of the future will be empires of the mind.” Winston Churchill, 1953

I think Prime Minister Churchill might be pretty disappointed in how far we’ve come.

Instead of grabbing hold of the opportunity to create positive change, we’ve gone further and further down the path of self-destruction.

Instead of joining into communities that focus on making the world a better place for everyone, we’ve retreated into our own private corner of hell.

By using the past as the lens through which we view the world, we focus only on what’s already happened and on how we perceived it at that time.

But the truth is waiting to be seen and heard.  The truth is that we can change everything!

You can choose what you see, what you experience, and how you react to those events.  By actively seeking the truth, you change your reactions.  You change your experience.  As a result, you change yourself, evolving into the new human you can become.

Need an example?  The Khasi people of India live in one of the wettest spots on the planet, separated by rivers, lakes and swamps.  They have figured out how to train the trees to grow “living bridges” to stay connected with each other!  Check it out at http://click.nl.npr.org/?qs=8f2b3bf54f93029f567cff8d4a2d1dab79e2ae1251918ef169fee9b55877375907be0091fd2f5aa375629c72ecbacc26e0fe914696e42455

Are you ready to make the effort to change?

Photo by Rachel C, courtesy of Unsplash

With Grace and Gratitude, 

LeslieAnne

A Course in Miracles Experiment (by Pam Grout) Day 163

What would our planet look like if we consciously trained our minds to accept all the data pouring into our brains?

What would our country look like if we consciously decided to truly treat each human being as though they were someone we knew and loved?

What would your life look like if you treated every person, every plant and animal, like a beloved part of your family?

When I’m on the phone for work, I try to approach each call as if I’m helping a neighbor – someone I may not know yet, but a person who has unique needs and wants some help with a subject I’m more familiar with than they are.

If I can just treat everyone as though they’re a valued customer (which they are), I can hang up at the end of the day feeling pretty good about what I’ve accomplished.

Yes, some people are more difficult to work with.  Yes, some people don’t act nicely.  And yes, some people have needs I can’t meet.  But I have to recognize that I only have control over myself, and that the rest is not my responsibility.

I imagine our planet as a place where each child is treated like a gift, where every human being has every physical and emotional need fulfilled, where our pets are all valued members of the family.

Can you envision that?

What if everyone took five minutes today to try to bring that vision to life?

We see what we choose to see, experience what we choose to acknowledge.

What will you choose to experience today?

Choose joy!  Choose happiness!  Choose to see the unlikely, the improbable, the miraculous! Above all else, choose wisely.

Have a grand day today!

Photo by Juskteez Vu, courtesy of Unsplash

With Grace and Gratitude, 

LeslieAnne