Our emotional state determines what we create. Once you fully embrace this truth, the work begins. There is wisdom in living the truth of the Serenity Prayer: having the serenity to accept what you cannot change, the courage to change what you can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Here we are, nearly two months into a global pandemic that leaves millions of people at home, without work, many sick, and hundreds of thousands have already died from this epic virus. How to stay sane when the future is so completely uncertain?
When I first declared freedom as one of my values, it meant that I wanted to be free to determine my own way, to make choices, and express myself in my career as I saw fit. Over the years, I have grown to see the true value of freedom. What it now means to me is freedom from my ego.
Freedom means being able at any moment to subjugate my opinions, preferences, desires, and views to a higher vision, a grander possibility, and a more loving response.
None of us like what is happening around the world right now, but resisting it only makes us suffer. There is no point in being in argument with reality. So how do we navigate this time and still experience freedom? Try these three steps:
Practice Acceptance:
Acceptance means seeing life and people and circumstances as they are, not as we wish they were. Seeing the truth of how someone is behaving, seeing the reality of our financial situation, seeing the challenge in your marriage, or in how you are eating or using substances. Acceptance simply means seeing what’s so. It is the most basic element of resilience.
Surrender:
Surrender is a quality that is far too little understood in our culture. Surrendering doesn’t mean giving up, or being resigned. It means giving up any notion that “I know” or “I have to fix this.” Surrender recognizes that there is no “I, me, or my” but that everything is part of the Universal expression that God is and that we are. So rather than fighting, fixing, and figuring out, which only leads to struggle, surrender says, “Life is always working for good. Life has higher wisdom than I ever will have, therefore I trust the movement of Life to guide me.” Do not confuse that approach with having no boundaries, or tolerating unacceptable behavior from others. Surrender simply means an approach to life that allows rather than resists. Surrendering requires faith that your needs will be met by a loving universe. When you live in that energy, you become more loving, more peaceful, and more able to tolerate the uncertainty all around.
Blessing All That Is:
Beyond the practices of surrender and acceptance is the practice of blessing all that is. You might ask why you would bless things or people that have hurt you. That’s a great question and the answer is ironically simple. We either choose to hold negative energy toward others or life circumstances – blame, anger, resentment, righteousness – which essentially causes our own suffering, or we choose to bless all that life gives us and trust that each experience serves our growth in big and small ways.
Bless all of those who are now suffering, bless those who are frightened, bless those whose opinions you do not share, bless the pandemic, BLESS EVERYTHING YOU ENCOUNTER EACH DAY.
St. Francis once wrote, “It was easy to love God in all that was beautiful. The lessons of deeper knowledge, though, instructed me to embrace God in all things.” This means we embrace our faith in God even during the pandemic. We embrace by accepting, surrendering, and blessing this experience. As we learn to accept, surrender, and bless all things, we are on the superhighway to freedom. I send blessings to you today, for your time reading my posts, for the love you send each time you respond to my thoughts in these messages, and for the love that you are bringing to this world. Blessings!
Thank you Jackie for sharing your energy with us!
“What it now means to me is freedom from my ego.” well said!