Robbins Hopkins

Spiritual Health: Being at Peace in Everyday Life

silence

Wholeness comes from the Silence

Before I learned to go, first thing, to Divine Presence when in need, I would observe an imbalance or pain in my body and immediately begin arranging whom to go see about it.  I lived in doctor’s offices often going 2-3 times a week for a number of years. I was a medical junkie, literally looking for a high.  I thought I was taking care of myself.  I was physically.  It was wearing on me completely though, looking back on that time.   This was my response to chronic pain.  I went to have all sorts of therapies tried on me, seeking some sort of relief.  Usually the relief helped for a couple of days but in some cases, I felt the pain return driving home from the appointment.   If I could have taken the practitioner home with me, perhaps that would have extended the sense of well being!

From a purely energetic point of view, the most important thing each of us can do especially when we are sick or out of balance is to go into intentional Silence in the Presence of the Divine.

Life Goes On by Peyman
Life Goes On by Peyman

What we usually do is go to the doctor, chiropractor, therapist, gym, masseuse, a movie, etc.  We don’t generally go to God as our first response when faced with a physical or mental ailment.   This is a curious reality.   Seeking Divine Presence through Silence is much easier than making an appointment, getting dressed, finding transportation, maneuvering through traffic, sitting in the doctor’s office, all to don a paper gown for examination!  Further, after getting the help, we have to get dressed again,  pay the bill, usually head for the pharmacy, and then retrace all our steps home.  Alternatively, sitting in Silence is our own private route to Wholeness.

When we go to a practitioner, we usually go because we hope for help, relief, medicine, reassurance, caring touch, attention and information.  Why don’t we go first to Divine Presence when we are out of balance?  We can get the same loving assurance, help, relief, attention, and care in the comfort of our own home with Divine Presence.

Cathy did not enter into Silence because she was afraid nothing would be there. Burton said,  ” I get in there and am afraid I won’t get out or won’t want to get out.”  Sharon shared, “I am afraid of what I will find out about myself. ” Amelia revealed, “I am always so concerned about what I need to do, I just get antsy sitting there getting none of it done.”  Rob said, “I am afraid of all the anger I am carrying around.  It might get opened up and I could not put it back in. ”

Any of these feelings familiar to you? These are strongly felt feelings, yes, but with not one ounce of lasting truth in them.  The feelings seems powerful and real, because they are charged with emotion.  However, there is a deeper truth in Silence which amazes everyone I have ever spoken with who intentionally enters into Silence.

There is Lasting Truth in Silence.  It is the core of our own True Selves. There is more love and acceptance in Silence than anywhere else in the Universe.  The more we experience this, the more we can bring that love and acceptance into our daily lives.

Another way to look at this is, we live in a spiritual world which we are trying to experience physically.  We get as many chances as we want, to try and experience this earth dimension solely on a physical basis.  Something BIG is missing  though, if that is what we keep trying to do.

Pink autumn girl by Nuuttipukki
Pink autumn girl by Nuuttipukki

When I began to meditate I sat outside up against a large walnut tree which grew up through our second story deck.  I remember days of just sitting and realizing I was just sitting.  I felt safe and supported by that old tree.  The sitting in and of itself felt like a gift to myself.  Then I began to experience currents of energy I had not experienced before.  I remember one early day of sitting,  it began to snow.  I realized I was liking the Silence.   I got up to get some cover from the cold.  I found my bright pink and blue serape and hat, bundled up and returned to sit.  I thought, I must be meditating, why else would I be sitting here in the snow?  It was a great sense of peace and calm.

Silence is a self- teaching process.  If you rest into Silence, you rejuvenate.  If you float in Silence, you set down your burdens and responsibilities and when you come out you can reexamine what you want to pick up again.   If you enter Silence and “bad things” come up, you can name them out loud and command them out of your energy field. They are already there affecting our sense of peace and balance every day, anyway.  Feelings and thoughts are not our core being.  Welcome to you own true self, that part of you that is basically Silent at the core and from that Silence all else is generated.  Most of us spend 95% of our time with the “stuff” that is generated and next to no time with the core of who we truly are.

Peace by alicepopkorn (in and out)
Peace by alicepopkorn (in and out)

The entire idea here is when we enter into Silence, we will get the help we need, in the way we need it, when we need it. The inner space is not about being alone, it is about connecting with Divine Source, Infinite Love and Boundless Possibility.  Why are you not availing yourself of this space of Utterly Available Wholeness?  It is the shortest way I know of to health, happiness, laughter and peace.

Check in with your “stuff” around avoiding Silence.   Begin by is sitting with Divine Grace/The Oneness/Spirit of the Living God who loves us each completely, thoroughly, just exactly as we are.  Take 10 minutes (by the clock) each day to begin with or join others in Stillness and Silence.  We don’t have to put on our best Sabbath behavior, clothes or manners.  We are already loved, we just need to show up to feel it reflected back to us.  Knowing Wholeness comes from the Silence.

“There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.”   Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Entering Silence

Meditation in white 2 by Greenmonster

There are infinite ways to enter Silence. Success with intentional Silence is accessible to all human beings, with practice.   Silence is the space beyond conscious thought.  It is the space beyond lists, questions, concerns and fears.  It is the space of Infinite Possibility.  When first exploring time in Silence, many of us think we will find some direction, get clarity on an issue or feel safe and supported.  These things can and do occur in Silence but usually meditators have to overcome feelings of discomfort, insufficiency and sometimes even boredom when first entering intentional Silence.  Early experiences with Silence can be filled with self-doubt, fears of what we will find in Silence, and even a sense of unworthiness about communicating with The Great I AM.  Others feel afraid of the unknown or of  dark spirits which may be “out there”.   Additionally, because we come from a culture with a healthy focus on doing and accomplishing things in the outer world, we can feel guilty, disconnected from “real life” and antsy to have something concrete take place in the Silence.  The key is to keep at it, repeat the process over and over again.  It is worth any discomfort, frustration or angst you may encounter in the process.

So how can one intentionally enter into Silence and have a positive experience? Begin by asking Divine Source for help in entering Silence in a way that will be good for you.  Call to yourself a positive meditation experience and wait until you get a sense of how to proceed.  In other words, prepare for success.

Or if that is not your style, jump right in one day and see what happens.  You will learn a great deal from that experience of  Silence for yourself.  If you do go this route, you might first consider why you want to enter into Silence.  Then let that all go as you actually begin to enter Silence.  Leave all the thoughts, fears, judgments and uncertainties at the doorway to Silence.  Zip off the roles, the responsibilities, the shoulds, the demands,  the worries and enter as freely as you are able.  “Become as a child, to enter the kingdom of God”.

There are many reasons to enter Silence.  I work with those interested in seeking a deeper, personal relationship with All That Is.  All That Is or Divine Presence is within our own being,  so we end up coming to a deeper knowing of our own True Power, Creativity, and Knowing along the way.  This is the full course menu for entering Silence. There are a number of other menus available as well.  Knowing why you are seeking Silence is a really good place to begin.

Steps I take when entering Silence

1. I prepare for quiet time by turning off the phone, telling family members I am not available and retreating to a place where I will not be disturbed.  I select some material to read and possibly something to listen to, in my space.  I set aside a specific amount of time for being in Silence.

2.  I open the space I am in to the Highest Divine Energy of the Universe.  I invite my Highest Self, Ascended Masters, The Angelic  Host, Divine Nature Spirits, Highest Divine Cosmic Light Beings and any other forms of Divine Light who can help me hold the space of Silence that day.   Alternatively, you can call in the Holy Spirit or Spirit of the Living God.

I do this because my intention is to connect specifically with Divine Energy rather than with all the other energies in Silent space.  I also like the idea of being in the presence of  Evolved Spirits who know how to navigate the Silence.   Their conscious knowing of All That Is  helps me find my own source of Knowing within.  I like the idea of inviting knowledgeable company to join me in this process.

3.  I call for the Divine Presence of the Great I AM to lead me into the experience of  Silence.

4. I can sometimes settle right into a place of stillness and quiet. If this is the case, I sit with my back upright, legs crossed beneath me and breathe in and out, focusing on my breath until I drift into a place beyond thinking.

5.  Sometimes I can’t be still. Then I most frequently read a spiritual passage until I feel settled enough to be still.   If that does not work, I may sing, chant, om,  recite a psalm,  listen to a beautiful piece of music or recite an affirmation to calm my mind.  If that is the sum of my meditation time that day, I have simply connected with All That Is in a different way,  from entering Silence.  We have still connected.

6. In using affirmations, I select one and repeat it over and over again from my heart, until I drift into stillness.   Some of the affirmations I use are:

I AM God’s Beloved Child.

I AM One with All That Is.

I AM lovable and capable.

Upon Me God’s favor rests.

All is well and that’s the truth.

I AM safe and at peace.

I AM God breathed.

7. When I end, I give thanks for the experience, regardless of how my judging self might be seeing the experience I have just had.

Entering Silence is like learning to play the piano. In the beginning, even the simplest learned pieces bring us pleasure.  However in learning the piano pieces, we may have struggles with ourselves over setting aside time, breaking down the piece to learn it,  and mastering it to our satisfaction.  This can be exactly what we face with beginning to meditate.  We are learning something which we do not know how to do.  We are entering into unknown territory, that of Silence.  So, patience and seeking is called for.  However, the greatest counselor of all is the Great I AM, Infinite Knowing and Boundless Love.  If you continue to seek in meditation, in the Silence, all that is needed is provided.  The pathway for each person will be revealed in just perfect ways.  Our part in this is to keep seeking and trying things until we have the success we envision.

If you are trying to meditate, go deeper in your meditation or have slacked off for a while and would like to start again, send along any questions you may have and the responses can be shared on-line for the reading community. If you have a personal suggestion of what is working for you, please share those as well.

The God You Don’t Believe In

Bearded Man, 1981 by Seattle Municipal Archives

Tell me about the God you don’t believe in. Perhaps it is a God, who resembles a wise old man in the sky, with a beard who knows everything you do and is going to make you pay for most of  it. Perhaps the God you don’t believe in seems a lot like the Big Kahuna who has everything as he likes it, is none too available unless maybe when there is serious bad stuff going down.  Even then, contacting him, is an iffy proposition.  Or even better, your non-existent  God perhaps never did exist because  look at all these truly horrific things happening here on Earth.  “How can there be a God?  That God is a real myth.”  Maybe the  God you left was that one the nun spoke of  when you were seven, saying, “you better sit there and don’t even think of going to the bathroom unless you want to see this ruler imprinted on your hand.  God is watching you and you are already in serious trouble”

Perhaps your discarded God wasn’t there when you were abused or felt abandoned.  Or perhaps that  God wasn’t around when your mother suffered and died too young with cancer.  Then there are lots of folks who talk about a God found in large buildings where you dress up in your best clothes, pledge money to belong, serve on at least one committee and usher once a month. Perhaps that works for some folks.

Devon Church by
Devon Church by etrusia uk

I really tried to find God there for a long, long time.  I loved the music and the stained glass windows and loved all the sense of connectedness with other people.  I would have so loved to have found God in such a place.

I finally though, admitted to myself that I did not believe in any of those kinds of Gods either.  I was hoping God would show up somewhere along the line but honestly, I was truly adrift for a long time over this.  However, we all go through our own process of coming to a knowing of God Energy and Presence, or not.

Actually,  I prefer any of these terms, Divine Presence, Spirit, Great Oneness, All That Is, the Great I AM to” God”, because I seem to be always stepping on other people’s views of the God they don’t believe in.  The images connected with the word “God” are so loaded that it is a challenge to even use the word “God” when I am speaking about energy which is not in form, invisible, all knowing,  powerful in untold ways, eternal,  and present everywhere.

Is it just possible, that there is some type of Divine Presence which does not fit neatly into our present views and beliefs about God? Might we have our version of the God we don’t believe in, because we have never had a personal relationship with the Energy of the Great I AM?  Perhaps we have only heard about this energy from age old stories which simply can’t be true.  Or perhaps we have only experienced other people’s views of what God energy is and what it is supposed to do for us.  Perhaps what we have heard of God, we don’t like and don’t believe.  Other people’s stories seem too impossible to believe,  so God has got to be a figment of people’s imagination.

I was raised in a religious practicing family.  When I was a teenager, I became an internal skeptic.  Then I became a benevolent humanist and agnostic.  I felt better trying to be a nice, good person but I did not know if there was a God or not.  Then I ran into a few brick walls, chronic debilitating back pain, a serious family illness,  humongous fear and I became a seeker.

Meditation Begins At Birth by Premarian
Meditation Begins At Birth - in Croatia by Premasagar

One day through the “grace of God”, it seems to me looking back,   I entered into intentional Silence and something amazing happened.   I ran into God right in the middle of the Silence.  I guessed it was God.  I had not really expected to find that clarity, peace or knowing in that Silence.  But there IT was, staring me in the face.the lotus within yourself by Chris Spera

Then I began to share what I was learning with others and lots of other people also began to have similar experiences to mine and began to share them.  They also moved from seekers to knowers.  We had a movement happening.  We had moved into the space of people who know there is a God force because we spend time with that force repeatedly.  After a few months of entering Silence, we knew that Energy Force was always inside of us.

Then we began to see that after we had had that time of Silence and connecting in,  we were more loving in all ways.  We were more centered.  We were more balanced and content.  This became my own definition of God Energy then.   All the questions I had, seemed to melt away.  The experience of Divine connection which I found in the Silence was all knowing and I found that totally fascinating.  It was as if through osmosis from somewhere in the Silence,  I was learning about the real God, at least the one that was real for me.  (stay tuned)

Good Work… if you can get it.

Thoughts and feelings can balance us or unbalance us.  Where we place our attention and give our power determines whether we move towards greater balance or greater imbalance.  When we are out of balance energetically, it shows up somewhere.

How does imbalance affect us?
taken by aeu04117
MB Balances Rocks (by aeu04117)

It can show up in disturbing dreams, inability to sleep, imbalances in eating habits, impatience, “down days”, arguments or colds and infections.  If we have been out of balance a very long time, the immune system can become compromised.  We can begin to show patterns of recurring colds, chronic pain or infections, high blood pressure, depression, anxiety or even osteoporosis, cancer or diabetes and everything in-between.  We may have recurring patterns of unsuccessful relationships, jobs, financial investments or failure to generally thrive due to being out of balance.

Our bodies as well as our thoughts, feelings and sense of connectedness to the greater whole are all energy.  Further our emotional, mental, spiritual and physical bodies are all related.  We are one large, completely connected web of flowing energy.  When one area of our life does not flow, we will be given all the chances we need to attend to this.  We always have the choice to attend in the present or put it off until later.  However, as long as there are imbalances in our energy field, these will  show up in our daily lives in one way or another.

Our response to energy may not be the only reason we are manifesting imbalances in our daily life.  There may be environmental factors, situational factors or hereditary patterns which make us more susceptible to certain imbalances in our lives.  However,  if we  couple  environmental or hereditary factors with also being out of balance emotionally, mentally or spiritually, the results at the physical level will be exacerbated.  The more we are out of balance, the greater the chance this will show up in our daily lives in one way or another. This is the most practical reason for attending to our spiritual health that I know of.  Thankfully, though,  we can change how we think and feel if we can figure out what blocked energy we may be carrying and how it is affecting us.

At the park with my daddy! =) (by Photo ChicK DoraliS)
How can we change our thoughts and feelings?

The way we attend to energy directly affects our health on many levels.  Suppose you are having on-going tension with a child.  You may have tried “everything” to clear the air with this child and are having no success. Usually when we come to this place with any relationship, it is time to look inside at our own thoughts and feelings about what is actually going on.  We can affect our thoughts and feelings if we can understand the “unseen” reasons we have specific thoughts and feelings.  However clearly we can see in others what they need to change, we can only bring about such change in ourselves.  Each person has the free will to choose conflict or balance, change or status quo,  harmonious relationships or contentious ones.   When we do decide to release thoughts and feelings which are creating imbalances,  it affects everything around us including the specific relationship we are focused on.

Enter into Silence and open a sacred healing space for yourself.  Ask yourself,  “when I argued with my child, what fears were fueling my thoughts, tone, emotions and words”?  It might be the fear; for your child’s safety,  of your child’s failure,  that (s)he is making poor decisions,  that your child does not respect you,  that you do not have the relationship you want with your child, or another fear.

What do I do if I am too angry to think straight?

If you can’t get to defining fear because of the anger that is present, list the specific anger you have.  Include every type of specific anger you are experiencing.   This might include something like,  I am angry with Kevin because I ask him to clean up his room,  then he doesn’t do it until I get angry and yell at him.  List everything you can but keep your work to blocks of no more than 15 minutes.  More than that can be overwhelming.  Keep returning to this set of tasks in 15 minute blocks until you are finished. When all the specifics of your anger are listed, move on to what is behind the anger that most upsets you.

Anger almost always covers fear or doubt of some sort or another.  Ask, “what is behind the anger I am feeling” ?  Specific fears and doubts cover probably 98% of the blocked energy manifesting in contentious relationships. This is called diagnosing the situation. If you can’t figure it out yourself, go into Silence, be still and ask Divine Knowing for insight around these issues.  Listen to the guidance.

How do I get rid of these thoughts and feelings?

Diagnosis is good.  Clearing the blocked energy is better.  Take the specific fear or doubt you have identified and take it into sacred healing space.   Open the sacred healing space, ask that the fear/doubt be consumed by the Divine Presence.  Call for all core or source energy manifesting now as this fear/doubt to be release into Divine Light.  Call for the Divine Healing Presence to permeate this relationship and give thanks for this experience.  Your taking these steps will be met 100% of the way by Divine Presence/Divine Knowing/Source.  This healing energy is first experienced at the unseen level usually in the form of different feelings and thoughts.   It takes a little while for shifting energy to show up in our physical lives.   Watch for shifts.  Give thanks for the shifts both unseen and seen as they come and eventually the energetic context of this relationship under scrutiny will shift.

You may have to work on other aspects of fear or doubt over several weeks or months to completely allow you to be in relationship with this child, free of fear.  However, each time you undertake this type of healing with the Divine Presence,  you will actually change the energy around you, especially that with your child.  Keep it up.  “It’s good work… if you can get it. ” (Dave Wilcox. “Good Together”, 2002)

Welcome

Welcome to this blog!  So glad you found us. We will be exploring Inner Peace and spiritual health in daily life. We will look at how to get there, what keeps us from staying in a state of Peace, what triggers our anger, guilt, fear, pride, judging, forgiveness and hope and  how to work our way into greater and greater balance and wholeness.

We are here to seek Peace in all areas of our lives, emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically. The question is, how do we do that? It begins with facing the areas of our lives where there is clearly a lack of Peace.  We know these areas as places of tension, arguments, irritations, anger, strain and stress.

Whenever we are out of balance, we are not in a place of Peace. Arguments, frustration, anger,  and irritation are the outward indications of inward imbalances.  We may not realize what those imbalances are, but we get all the chances we need to identify areas of imbalance because they keep presenting in varying ways until the root cause of the imbalance is cleared from our energy field.  What is most amazing about spiritual health is that as we fully release blocked energy from our own energy fields, we see positive changes in the outward expressions of those difficult imbalances in all areas of our lives.

No one else can do this work for us. We have to undertake this effort ourselves.  However, we also get all the help we need as we set the intention to come into greater and greater Peace.  It is as if the Universe around us is attuned to those seeking Peace and rushes to help us in the most amazing of ways.  When we are seeking Peace, even before we have arrived at Peace in some area of our lives, there is help.  We simply have to be silent and take that help in, which comes vibrationally from entering into Silence.

Help can come from many other ways as well.  We can become renewed and more peaceful by taking a swim, by working in the garden, by seeing a good friend, by watching an inspirational movie or by creating something lovely.  These ways of connecting with positive energy can also very helpful to us at times when seeking Peace.  However, in certain areas of our lives, where we are stuck in old energy, old patterns and old ways of thinking, we need a higher knowing , a higher connection with Divine Energy.

The process of seeking Peace is one that is most powerfully undertaken with Divine Partnership in all its many forms.  That is because, there is an Infinite Knowing way beyond our human knowing which kicks in when we make an intention to seek Peace.  When we first make that commitment, or set that intention to seek Peace, we don’t have a clear vision of why we are out of Peace, why we need Peace, what we are thinking, feeling and doing which is at odds with Peace.  That knowing comes to us in Silence, if we enter into it regularly.

This is a best kept secret. Within the Silence is the deep Knowing that is the key to lasting Peace.  For when entering Silence, we leave our outer roles, concerns, responsibilities, thoughts, lists, and self-judgments outside of that time and space.  With some practice, we are more and more our own true selves in Silence.  We can more easily “free-float” in that Silence. Then the contrast between that sense of Peace in Silence and our daily, outer experiences of being out of balance make themselves increasingly known to us.  Without some experience of “letting it all go”, as one experiences in meditative Silence, where would we learn about the feeling of Peace in our own experience?

Take a few moments in the beginning of your day to simply be still and “know that I am God”.  Whatever your experience is will be perfect.  Even if there is a swirling cacophony of things to do, places to go or people to see in that first effort, it is a beginning.  If you have already had experience with Silence try expanding your time a few minutes or simply try to be more accepting of the experience you have in that time of Silence.  Silence is a gift to ourselves and it is within this journey that we find Peace that passes all understanding.  Begin with opening the Silent space with the Highest I AM/Divine Oneness/God energy of the Universe.  You will be in good hands this way.