by: Kathy Best, CNT, CRRC, ACCR, PSDC , December 1, 2019

I’ve been researching, studying, and testing spiritual principles and theories for over 16 years. I have learned so much over the years, not only about life and my higher power, but about myself and the innate powers and gifts we were all born with. The more I learn, the more I realize I have so much more to learn, but I love learning so this is just another blessing to me. I realize I won’t ever learn everything I need or want to learn in this lifetime, but I can learn enough to reinvent myself, remake my life into the grandest vision of the greatest version I can hold for myself, and positively impact the people and the world around me. The vastness of the wisdom, knowledge, and mysteries from the beginning of time and the outer reaches of space is limitless and awe-inspiring when contemplated. Thank goodness we have eternities of opportunities to learn, grow, and expand our conscious understanding of universal laws, principles, and insights and recreate ourselves and our lives in the reflection of our evolving understanding.

I grew up believing that life was painful, difficult, unfair, and the only things you could count on were death and taxes. One of the mantras my father taught me was “life sucks and then you die.” I did not realize it until many years later that these beliefs were not really my own. I had not come up with them, I had simply accepted them as truth from someone I trusted and felt knew much more about life than I did as a child. The fact was that they were truth for my father, but only because he believed them completely, he expected them to be true, he focused his attention and his intentions on them and his brain, along with his innate ability to create, and the universal life force that draws to us that which we focus our attention and emotion on, worked their co-creative magic to design the exact scenarios and experiences that supported his emotionally charged thoughts and beliefs about life and the world. Thank heaven I had a mother that was the polar opposite of that, although in my younger years her voice could not often be heard above the fear and anger coming from my father.

I was my father’s daughter for the first thirty years of my life. Actually longer than that. I was such a pessimist and so analytical that at first I rejected everything that did not fit into my old belief system. I wanted to know how it all worked, why it worked so differently than I had ever been taught, and I wanted proof. I’d believe it when I saw it. Slowly, I began to explore new concepts, ideas, and beliefs about God, myself, and the world. I tested every concept, idea, and principle before I was willing to replace old, self-sabotaging beliefs with this new, radical ‘Polly Anna’ garbage. The more I opened myself up to the possibilities and became more receptive to the unfamiliar the more crap seemed to come my way, or so it appeared, at first. I know now that I had to confront all of my old wounds and beliefs in order to heal and release them before anything new could take its place. It took me many more years to break through the patterns that I had created to validate my old feelings about life. I had so many experiences that left me feeling insecure, helpless, and afraid. So many behaviors, mistakes, and missed opportunities that I thought I needed to be punished for by a vengeful, angry God. It took me about six years to take a full personal inventory, forgive others and myself for every pain I had experienced and inflicted, recognize and accept the part my thoughts and behaviors had played in my life, and develop new beliefs, new thoughts, new habits, and a new conscious awareness and connection to the unlimited possibilities and support available to me.

The thing that so many people fail to understand is that support, guidance, communication, connection is available to everyone at any moment and every moment, not just to a select few at special times. When you ask, and are truly willing to accept help, it shows up as quickly as you allow it. The problem many of us have, and I had it too, is that we have these limited, clearly defined ideas of how our prayers should be answered and what form our guidance, support, and miracles can come in. If it doesn’t fit into our realm of familiarity then we discount it, dismiss it, or completely overlook it. The Source of All That Is knows exactly what we need for our highest good and is willing to support us in getting it, but too often what we think we want is not truly what is in our best interest, or in the best interest of someone else, so if we don’t get the answer we want we say, “I’m being punished, or they are being punished for my sins, so my prayers are not answered, or I was disobedient so Allah has turned his back on me.” In truth, if we would look around us with open minds, listen with open hearts, and be completely ready to receive a clear message which we could understand without a doubt, such would be presented to us with haste. We need to stop being so skeptical, judgmental, and fearful of the unfamiliar and start making it familiar. This is not to say we need to go out and behave recklessly or accept everything we hear or read as truth, but it does mean that we need to acknowledge that we do not know everything there is to know about life, about our higher power, and even about ourselves. We need to be willing to look in other places, listen to other teachings, and discern a broader sense of our truth from our heart-center instead of our mind.

I have found through years of struggling to be open to, hear, and receive messages and guidance from God, Source, my Higher Power, etcetera – sometimes it’s easier to start with a more accessible messenger. Sometimes, no matter how much we believe in a Higher Power, we have these deep seeded notions that we are not worthy of communicating directly to the Creator. These emotionally charged responses can be challenging to overcome, so it’s best to start with a being of light associated with the God of our understanding that is a link between us and the One. This could be an ascended master – like Lao Tzu, Sanat Kumara, El Morya, Serapis Bey, Hilarion, Saint Germain, Buddha, Jesus Christ, or Mother Mary, any or all of the Archangels, your guardian angels, spirit guides, ancestors, or any other non-physical being that you feel a strong affinity toward. When we begin developing our sacred gifts of intuition, divine communication and communion it makes it easier and faster to work at the level of belief we currently hold. Unfortunately we will need to push ourselves beyond many of our long-held beliefs, to achieve the full benefit and this may feel very uncomfortable for some at first. I promise that you will not be judged, punished, or damned if you try things that take you out of your religious comfort zone. You may bring about some experiences that feel as though you are, but this is simply your mind continuing to support your old belief system. Once you let these things come up, truly look at them with an open heart and mind, and be willing to question their validity, things begin to shift rapidly for the better, much better than we ever could have anticipated.