Returning the thank you

September 9 Affirmation - My heart is filled with gratitude, knowing there is always more coming my way.

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough and more." ~Melody Beattie

"Life has enough of everything to spare." ~Ernest Holmes

Rev. Norm wrote "The fact is, it doesn't make any difference to God whether you give thanks or not, but it makes a lot of difference to you...gratitude is not for God. Giving thanks is an important state of your consciousness that keeps you in an awareness of oneness with the divine flow. The grateful heart actually opens the way to the flow and becomes an attractive force to draw even greater things to itself."

This morning I sat for 10 minutes in the quiet, and simply started scrolling through my mind of all the things I am grateful for. I found myself land on the "easy" gratitudes, my parents, my fiancée, the food in my fridge, my job, my co-workers, those I manage and support with my work, friends, teachers, leaders et cetera...and then I found myself turning to the areas, people and organizations that I find personally challenging...I didn't necessarily know why or what I was grateful for initially, but I just kept going. "I am grateful for XXX, I am grateful for YYY" and things softened inside me. I didn't hold them so tightly, I didn't hold myself so tightly. I actually in that loosening and space received some guidance from within on some words I could share to foster connection again with a colleague where there has been some challenge. Gratitude as Melody Beattie wrote, unlocks the fullness of life. Even in the midst of an area of challenge for me, in the process of saying thank you and I am grateful, something opened up.

Let us follow the words of Meister Eckhart (a medieval monk) today. "If the only prayer you say in your entire life (today) is thank you, it will be enough."

Let us thank ALL of life today and open ourselves to a life that thrives!

21 Day - No Complaining Challenge

March 23rd I started a 21 day - No Complaining Challenge and invited a few folks to join in. Well over 50 people have said yes to this challenge and there were lots of questions of what this challenge is all about, what constitutes complaining and what doesn't and how will we hold ourselves accountable. At its most basic level this is a practice for you. And the invitation is the catalyst for accountability. I will post things daily, thoughts on complaining and offers some practices to be in relationship with complaining. I have also set up an accountability call in series, 3 calls over the 21 days. I am making this a part of my evolving ministry so I am asking you to pay $21 for for these 3 calls of support, learning and growth. You can register here.
https://squareup.com/market/darrell-jones-spiritual-counseling/day-no-complaining-challenge
If you choose not to do the calls that is fine too, return to this event everyday for some words of support.
Love to you!
The calls will be:
Sunday March 29th 7:30 - 8:30 p.m. 
Saturday April 4th 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. 
Sunday, April 12th 7:30 - 8:00 pm, all CST times

Day 20 - December Meditations - Allowing

"Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are." ~Malcom S. Forbes

What if you actually allowed yourself to be you today?  Valuing and allowing more time, energy and attention to land on who you are as opposed to what you are not."

Join me today in meditating and affirming your "enoughness".  

Download the meditation here.

Affirmation:  I value who I am today and let that be enough.

Day 17 - December Meditations - Perfection & Imperfection

"If you look closely at a tree you'll notice it's knots and dead branches, just like our bodies.  What we learn is beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully." ~Matthew Fox

For a good chunk of my childhood into my early adult years, perfection was a killer of joy, spontaneity and creativity in my life.  In fact this is something I struggle with weekly if not daily.  There is, I dare say, a crazy notion that our world embraces and celebrates that in order for something to be "so" or really legit, it has to be perfect, and if it is not, then it is some sort of less than throw away.  This may seem a big dark or harsh, but think of a time where you have wanted to discard yourself from something, a project, relationship, a diet, a work-out plan...whatever, you either stopped or wanted to stop because something in you or your creation wasn't perfect.

Perfection is actually like heaven.  It is always available, but it is not a static state, rather it is a subjective state of mind or consciousness that is cultivated and not something that magically descends upon our living.  Perfection is something we partner with in any given moment.

Partner with me in a meditation on perfection by downloading this 12 minute meditations.

Affirmation:  I embrace the inherent perfection of my life.  It is perfectly imperfect!

Day 13 - December Meditations - Where shall we rest?

"Our hearts are restless until they rest in the Thee, O Lord." - St. Augustine

What shall I rest in God?  What shall I rest in Universal Truth?  What shall I rest or give over to the law of fulfillment and possibility?......EVERYTHING!  I am always amazed to find another aspect of my life or challenge that I think I have to figure out on my own.  There is a law or tendency in the universe to co-create or partner with us in everything, but it can't force us to partner with it, to rest in it.  Lets just see what it would fee like to rest all of our problems, even if just a few minutes, in the loving, nurturing support of the law of fulfillment.  Join me here for meditation.

Affirmation:  I rest today in the ever expanding possibility of life.  I know all things are possible.

Day 5 - December Meditations - What limits your life?

"Never limit your view of life by any experience." - Ernest Holmes

These words of Ernest Holmes really inspired me this morning.  It caused me to pause and take a sobering look at where I view my life as limited and stifled and fess up to myself.  The only reason it IS that way really, is do to my belief and acceptance that limitation in that area of my life is true.  I may not know how things will change, but if I am not willing to entertain something different in my heart, mind, body and soul, I doubt I will be ready and available whenever a path, choice or opportunity comes along to shift things.

Are we willing to risk even the thought that our life could be something different?  The biggest challenge to new possibilities and expanded living in our future, is acceptance of our past experiences as the way things are.  Take this present moment today to expand the belief in your heart, that the experience of your life can stretch beyond your present view.  Join me in a brief meditation, welcoming and blessing the possibility known as your life!  Click here for the recording.

Affirmation:  My life and my living is an access point for something fresh today.  I am living possibility!

Opportunities to practice regardless of where you live!

• Click here to download guided meditations

June
What:  Community Prayer Call
When:  Thursdays 8:30 - 9:00 p.m. June 5, 12, 19 & 26
Where:  Conference Call, Call Number: 530-881-1200 Access Code: 431735#

What:  Saturday Morning Wake Up Call
When: June 21st, 9:00 a.m.
Where: Call Number: 530-881-1200 Access Code: 431735#

July
What:  Wednesday Evening Connections
When: Wednesdays, July 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 7:30-8:30 p.m.
Where: Darrell's backyard weather permitting.  Rain alternative will be a conference call

August
What:  Sunrise Meditation (Save the date, details to come!)
When: Sunday, August 17th, 5:45 a.m.
Where: Foster Street Beach


Speaking Engagments

• June 15th, Triangle Center for Spiritual Living, Raleigh, NC

Transition, Change, Uncertainty & Fear

Tomorrow, I end the part time job I have had for the past year while finishing my grad school program.  Friday I get on a plane and head to Denver for the graduation ceremony from my program.  I return next week to start a whole new job on Wednesday, all the while continuing to prepare for my oral panels to become a licensed minister in August...so in the midst of all this transition, change and uncertainty, guess who came by to visit...fear.  One of the greatest joys for me right now having finished my studies, is to read books that have been waiting for me on my bookshelf that weren't directly related to my coursework and reread some of my old standbys.  One of them is Ram Dass' "Journey of Awakening".  Here is a quote from Krishnamurti

It is not that you must be free from fear.  The moment you try to free yourself from fear, you create a resistance against fear.  What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it, not how to resist it through courage and so on.

I don't fear that anything bad will happen to me, but I am aware of some anxiety around the unknown.  How many hours will I really work, how will I juggle this with that.  Will I get everything done I want to before I start my job.  Will I forget to "close" anything up with my old work?  How will the plans I have made for trips and vacations work out with my new work schedule...oh shoot, I scheduled a lunch meeting months ago for a week from now with a colleague, will I be able to keep that meeting or have to reschedule, the list can go on and on.

For the past 80 days or so, I have also been meditating everyday and I know that has aided me in staying calm in the midst of uncertainty and constant change.  Meditating has created a space for me to be with my fear and learn about it and from it.  Meditation has created a space for fear to be okay.  Meditating has allowed me to sit with the question, is this fear or concern real or is it something just in my mind?  It has liberated me from the immobilization that fear can hold me in.

Meditation has supported me in my living in so many ways, right now I am grateful for the way meditation holds me in moments of uncertainty and fear.

Start your own personal meditation marathon.  Do 2 minutes a day everyday this summer until September 1st.  Want support on how to do that?

Drop me a line @ darrelljonesspirit@gmail.com.

Love, Light & Laughter,

Darrell

What else can you see? That is Freedom!

I have been contemplating freedom lately.  The idea of freedom, the feeling of freedom, the philosophy of freedom, the smell of freedom, the taste of freedom, any and all things I associate with freedom.  I wanted to know what I actually believe about freedom personally.  Regardless of what a book says, a class teaches or what a friend, family member or loved one shares, what ultimately matters for any of us is what we actually think, what we actually believe about something.

I was inspired by a quote I came across of Henry David Thoreau's, "It is easier to sail many thousands of miles through cold and storm and cannibals, in a government ship, with five hundred men...to assist one, than it is to explore the private sea, the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean of one's being alone."  I wonder if this is why so many of us find it challenging to sit down and meditate, to simply be still with ourselves for 5 to 10 minutes a day.

In meditation is where we actually commune with what we think and believe.  Meditation is where we see, touch, taste and feel the ingredients of our consciousness.  Sometimes those ingredients, those thoughts and beliefs, are not what we want in the stew we are cooking called our life.  Other times there may be thoughts and beliefs, ingredients, we didn't even know we had but actually like.  Meditation avails us to awareness, awareness of all of who we are, those ingredients we like and those less tasty.  What does all this have to do with freedom you might ask?  Consider this definition of freedom...Freedom: 1. the ability to see/consider possibility beyond what you currently know. 2. the ability to not only see or consider but to actually choose beyond what you currently know.

If something in your life is currently not working the way you would like it to, work, love, family, health, God even.  If whatever it is, is not working for you at your current place of understanding then you are bound by it, our current understanding of the situation is not serving us to move on.  What would liberate us from this?  Seeing another possibility.  That is freedom, seeing other possibilities, practicing freedom is actually choosing from that new possibility.

This is what meditation, prayer, other spiritual practices and spiritual counseling can offer us.  When I work with clients in a counseling session I always set an intention of awakening our individual and collective inner wisdom.  This intention then pulls us into our session and work together, availing myself and the client to see something else, to see new possibility, to live in freedom!

I challenge myself daily to see something new, to consider something previously outside of my conscious field of vision.  This challenge on a regular basis gives way to freedom, of seeing and choosing something new.  I challenge you to ask yourself "What else can I see?".  What I know is you will see something new and move through life free to be all of who you are!

Don't do it alone!  If you are looking for support living a freer life give me a call or email me for prayer or a counseling session.
Darrell Jones
darrelljonesspirit@gmail.com
773-450-3865