Monday, December 17, 2012

Choose to move through life with grace

I peacefully and joyfully accept the routine demands of my life with patience, love and a willingness to serve. I embrace the wonders of each day, and move with grace, ease and elegance.

These affirmations are great reminders for everyone choosing a more peaceful and loving way of life, especially in this time of year when the demands seem to be greater than usual.  

Our compassion is requested and tested on every level: world crises, acts of hatred against children, myriad charities soliciting support on the phone, by email and on the streets, and family members being stressed and demanding under the "burden" of the season...  It is often easier to react than to respond.

Reacting is when we answer a situation with the same level of emotional turmoil as what is presented to us, or when we create emotional turmoil out of our ego fears in a situation that could be emotionally neutral.  Responding is when we take time to think and choose an appropriate response that will serve the highest good of all concerned.  When we react, it's from the frequency of fear, hate or lack.  When we respond, it's from the frequency of Love -- and it takes practice and discipline!

For instance, I was presented this past week with a situation which brought me right back to the emotional trauma of my childhood.  Family gatherings often act as a trigger for me.  Suddenly, I felt my inner child's fears and insecurities well up, and reacting with spiritual kicking and screaming, emotional blaming for self-preservation, and intellectually revisiting all the past hurts and licking those wounds, as I was expecting more of the same in the days to come.  Phew what a roller-coaster ride!  It took all my might, focus and discipline to waddle out of that mess created in my own mind...  

I breathed, I prayed and asked for all the Divine help available for myself and others in this situation.  I chose to stop reacting and to turn the situation over to my Higher Self.  I asked myself what lesson I needed to learn, where I still needed to grow, where I needed to release control.  I congratulated myself for all my hard work these past few years increasing self-love and respecting my healthy boundaries.  I gained a new perspective on a few issues - others also have fears and insecurities, and I don't want to continue to fester in that energy level.  My #1 technique in this situation: to establish healthy boundaries for myself, and to love myself enough to respect them.    

The situation is not yet resolved, and I still feel very vulnerable and weak.  Yet I acknowledge that in many ways I am stronger than I used to be.  I am more centred in Love than I used to be.  Also, I realize that to remain centred in Love and Spirit is a choice to be made everyday, in every moment.  I always have the choice between reacting and responding.

Today, instead of dwelling on the wounds of my past, I choose to see its beauty and its lessons.  The past can not be changed, but my perspective can.  Today, I choose to focus on the beauty of the moment and on the loving creations I want to manifest. Today, I choose to move with grace.  I choose to dance with life and be led by Spirit.

No comments:

Post a Comment