• How am I contributing to the well–being of others in the present?
  

• How can I better use my special talents?
  

• What fields of potentially broader service to society would I like to explore?
  

Joyful thoughts as we embrace 2012!!!

• Look at the patterns that emerge.  Are your days balanced?

• Are there some things you can delegate, eliminate, or otherwise simplify?

• Is there anything missing from your life?

• Can you make room for it by scaling down your involvement in other areas?

• Think of yourself as an architect designing a beautiful living structure.
  

        Peace Pilgrim, a lady who walked a pilgrimage in the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico for 28 years, also wrote a few poems and songs.  My very favorite song of Peace is called, “I Am”.  It is a joy to share with you today a version recently posted on YouTube, sung by Kathy Miller, who was a member of the Friends of Peace Pilgrim and made her transition to spirit in 2006.  This song is with images of Peace. 

                  This day I would like to share with you, dear friends around the world, my comments to a person who wrote for advice.  She said, “Thanks for your words of inspiration. I'm going through a difficult time right now. I dropped out of a meaningful group.  I'm changing so much and so fast I need time by myself to figure things out.  I feel like I turned myself inside out.  I made a complete circle, and feel like I am right back were I started.  Although, I'm a totally different person now.  What's next?  All I can do is pray for guidance.  Thanks again.”

                  My comments to her: “Taking time for ourselves can be a grand opportunity for healing.  There are times for reaching out to others and times when inward contemplation will bring the highest rewards.  You are very close to your inner being in a deep desire to experience inner peace and I trust your recent decision is the best for you and all.  When we feel we have gone through a whole circle I invite you to consider the possibility that we are moving in a spiral … each cycle being wider than the previous one and we become a different person continuously, ever with more experience and understanding.  What is next?  Perhaps this is a time to let go and flow with the call of your inner being.  Patience is important.  My suggestion would be to take whatever time may be needed, knowing that answers will evolve at the right moment.  I see you are flowing with life.”

                  One of my recent mottos has been, “Trust. Be. Rejoice.”

A book I have been recommending for years is “The Tao of Inner Peace” by Dianne Dreher.  I find her approach most practical as we strive to embrace a state of dynamic harmony within ourselves.  One of her suggestions is to find a meaningful challenge that makes any life an adventure.

Here are some of her suggestions in such exploration:

• Can you see each day as a chance to practice what you believe?
• Can you do something each day to renew your sense of challenge?
• Could you benefit from more conscious discipline in following your goals?

Close your eyes and see yourself doing these things, living with greater joy, energy and adventure.  How do you feel?

When I first encountered the Peace Pilgrim book many years ago I became inspired to share her teachings in Spanish and translated her book to my first-language — that became the beginning of my work for peace.  This day I would like to invite you to visit the Friends of Peace Pilgrim website, and explore at your own pace her teachings and expanded contribution to society.

From 1953 to 1981 Peace Pilgrim walked more than 25,000 miles on a personal pilgrimage for peace.  She vowed to “remain a wanderer until mankind has learned the way of peace, walking until given shelter and fasting until given food.”  In the course of her 28-year pilgrimage she touched the hearts, minds, and lives of thousands of individuals all across North America.  Her message continues to inspire people all over the world: www.peacepilgrim.org

May you have an opportunity to do so, come to the home town where Peace Pilgrim was born, Egg Harbor City, New Jersey on the weekend of July 16-18 for our  annual Peace Pilgrim birthday celebration.  For more details please see: http://www.peacepilgrim100.org/index.htm

From Peace Pilgrim:

The power of thought. “Do you know that every moment of your life you’re creating through thought?”

Bringing our lives into harmony with the laws that govern the universe. As Peace said, to attain inner peace we need to align the way we live with our beliefs.

Finding our place in the life pattern. We are all cells in the body of humanity — all of us, all over the world.  Each one has a special contribution to make, and the guidance to find our mission in life comes from within.

To close my blogs about my strategy in managing life challenges, today I would like to talk about some final key elements in my process, which became instrumental in attaining a sense of transcendence and completeness. (For antecedents on this topic please see my previous blogs, Focus is Manifestation – Parts I to IV.)

I would love to hear your comments as you see fit.

In a conversation with a friend, he emphasized that finding the “right moment” when dealing with disease or challenging circumstances is of supreme importance for the unfoldment of health. In my own healing work when I first experienced severe tinnitus I knew that moment had come when I moved from the phase of uncertainty to the stage of rebuilding my life. I still remember the day when the great insight came to me… I realized I had to live… pure and simple… it was a supreme need to live that took me into a firm determination and shift from an approach of “live with it” or “cope” to manage and transcend tinnitus in a renewed spirit of wellness and completeness. Yes, I was going to be able to do so if I could only decide… truly from the depths of my being… that I could do it.

Such initial one moment of supreme importance was strengthened by the realization that pain is for a purpose.

Marc Edmund Jones, founder of the Sabian Assembly, spoke of these things and here are some of his insights:

• Experience is rehearsal. Experience is under continuous reconstruction.
• Every limitation in life is an opportunity for the clarification of one’s direction in a wider perspective, never a set-back or an obstacle.
• The person with many troubles is alive and their contribution may possibly be greater than that of someone with high success in smooth living.
• Suffering is pain with a purpose. When suffering, a person may enter into deeper realms of living and lift life to higher levels of experience and understanding.

Finally, here are a few additional comments to round out Focus is Manifestation, an approach to meaningful living, also supported by insights of another dear friend who made her transition to spirit four years ago.

1. Remember, you receive from it what you put into it.
2. Ask, what can I do with this? — What is it good for?
3. Create! Ask, how can I make this a creative challenge rather than an overwhelming obstacle?
4. Appreciation is a key.
5. You make your reality via the significance you give to your experience.
6. Act “as if.”
7. Be yourself — manifest your full potential!

On this occasion, I would like to share with you some of the keys I have developed that have worked for me in managing life challenges, during the third phase when we experience a deep need to move ahead as a series of strategies unfold to create a renewed identity, new goals and a fresh sense of mission in intentional living, and to some extent a new future. (For antecedents on this topic please see previous blogs, Focus is Manifestation – Parts I, II and III)

Stage III. Rebuilding

• Visualize success.
• Choose new pattern before a routine establishes itself.
• Keep open communication with meaningful people about feelings, plans.
• Set new priorities.
• Think creatively – brainstorm.
• Establish renewed goals.
• List accomplishments.
• Use time effectively.
• Continue assessing interests.
• Remember it is a process – it takes time for results.
• Be aware of new stress factors.
• Be optimistic – there is always hope.
• List needed adjustments.
• Communicate needs.
• Notice the difference – and celebrate progress.

Focus is Manifestation – that is, how you think and act is what will be – is my approach to life. As a result, tinnitus does not control my life anymore, and I now have a great sense of wellness and renewed health. I know that whatever I experience is a privilege, an opportunity to understand life better, to know who I am and where I’m heading — an opportunity for transcendence.

Final comments on this topic in my next blog.

Today I would like to share with you some of the keys I have developed that have worked for me in managing life challenges, during the first phase when we go through rejection and denial, refusing to accept that things have changed and loosing a sense of serenity and inner poise. (For antecedents on this topic please see my previous blog, Focus is Manifestation – Part I)

Stage I. Confronting New Reality

• Get involved in a low risk, high reward commitment.
• Reach out for ideas and support.
• Give it time.
• Stay in touch with own thoughts and feelings.
• Exercise.
• Implement practical measures and test how they work.
• Seek out information.
• Focus forward rather than backward.
• Stay in contact with family and friends.
• Re-examine daily activities and see how they fit into new circumstances.

More on this topic in my next blog.