"The most profound way
to practice releasing resistance
is to see clearly
how we don't want to let it go."
-- Gabrielle Bernstein
[Classic post from 10-2-16]
About a week ago, I bought Gabrielle Bernstein's latest book in print and unabridged audio. It is titled, The Universe Has Your Back - Transform Fear To Faith. What's interesting to me about this is that I have bought all of her books, and read a portion of her first, Add More ~ing To Your Life, have not yet read the others, and yet I devoured this one. It's so interesting how things work out.
This book is full of powerful wisdom for me. It sort of reminds me that I am on the path I meant to take, and it has tools that help me practice staying on my path. I say my path because somehow I know deep within what I chose before I came here and these things that I often stumble across are reminders and expanders.
Since I talk about 'letting go of the rope' all the time, I have long realized that it is my resistance that causes any ills in my life. It is in the letting go of resistance or letting go of the tug-o-war rope that brings me back into alignment, back into love.
This book reminded me so much of a favorite book from 1992 by Marianne Williamson, titled, A Return To Love. Both are teachings using A Course in Miracles as a foundation. So many of my favorite teachers use that same foundation, such as Alan Cohen, Gerald Jampolsky, and many more.
In the introduction, Gabrielle quotes A Course in Miracles: "We must not seek for the meaning of love but instead seek to remove all the barriers to love's presence." In other words, remove the resistance, let go of the rope, and even more important, return to love. It is the idea that love is our truth or all that is, and that everything else is simply hiding the truth.
Often when we are learning or expanding on a thing or our thinking, we feel that we fail to be perfect at it, even for the level we have achieved, and so we can beat on ourselves about failing, missing the mark, not being there yet, or whatever. Gabrielle says that "we can forgive ourselves for not doing things perfectly, and we can forgive ourselves for holding on to old patterns. Honoring this shadow side of ourselves is the way to heal our resistance."
But, here's the key to the whole book to me: Recognize where I am, what I am feeling, honor it, then turn back to love, or choose again. In other words, we can stay there if we want, but all of that is fear. Don't get upset by it, just acknowledge it, honor that it is an honest feeling, then choose what we already know is better and move on.
Throughout the book, she openly admits to her own resistance, even as far as she has come in her own learning, yet she becomes aware by how she is feeling as to where she is at emotionally and even physically. The healing path is always turning to love again and again and again.
This is the practice that I often talk about. We think we should finally arrive and no longer have to practice, but the practice is never over. It is the journey. There is no destination. The journey is our life, and so we can choose to practice, or we can choose not to choose.
She points out often how we don't want to give up our control: our judgments, fear, the relentless manipulations of the ego, and more. We resist. It's true, and it is also okay, but some people just don't want to change, don't want healing, are happy in a mysterious way to be unhappy. She mentioned how Sigmund Freud realized that some of his patients didn't improve because they did not want to improve, and that this realization changed his entire practice.
The theme of the book is also the idea that the Universe is always guiding us; albeit, we are often clueless about that. She shares many ways to communicate with the Universe and to seek openly the divine guidance by letting go of how things will come to pass, and just believe that somehow they will and it will always work out perfectly--even when sometimes there seem to be obstacles along the journey. It's all perfect.
There is so much value in this book for me, yet the single most valuable idea is as she says, "Our happiness is a direct reflection of how quickly we can restore our fear back to love." She adds, "The miracle isn't how well we avoid fear; the miracle is how quickly we return to love."
As I go through my day, and I feel that low vibration of a fearful thought, such as anger, resentment, disappointment, and such, when I realize or become aware what I am thinking by paying attention to how I am feeling, I can accept and honor that, and then, I can choose again. I can choose love.
It's kind of like going fast on a merry-go-round, then getting off and trying to walk a straight line. We may be caught up in it for the moment, but in a very short time, we can return to clarity and better control.
I have been practicing this in earnest for quite some time now, and I can tell you from my own experience the joy that is contained in how fast I turn to appreciation, to feeling good, to love. It is a very powerful idea and practice.
The Practice Of Choice.
Spread Some Joy Today--by remembering it is joy that you really want.
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